Engineer, worker held for abducting Lockdown

The main accused, Balamurugan (28) of Erode, is unmarried but wanted to bring up a child. He approached a worker named Sushantha Pradhan whom he knew for about three years and together they planned to abduct Lockdown, the fourth child of Kishore and Puthini couple from Odisha. Kishore has been working at the site as a carpenter for about two years and his wife was helping him.

On Sunday afternoon, Sushantha took the child when his parents and siblings were asleep, put him in a travel bag and handed it over to Balamurugan, who fled to Parangipettai in Cuddalore the same day. He asked Valarmathi (53), a former colleague, who lives there to take care of the boy for a few days claiming that it was his son.

But she grew suspicious and refused to keep the child. Balamurugan returned to Chennai with the child on Tuesday and left him on a bus at CMBT, Koyambedu. Later that night, Ambattur police took custody of the child and reunited him with his parents.

The officials began suspecting Balamurugan as he gave excuses to not appear for questioning. Combing of CCTV footage at the bus terminus, the police found that it was he who carried the child. After he was secured on Wednesday night, he allegedly admitted to abducting the child with the help of Sushanth. Both of them were arrested and remanded in judicial custody on Thursday.

Appreciating the special team comprising 13 officials, including Assistant Commissioner Kanagaraj and inspector Ramasamy, Avadi Commissioner Sandeep Rai Rathore rewarded them on Thursday. Meanwhile, Lockdown’s parents were provided with the essentials for the child.