A 34-year-old man has been apprehended by the police on Friday for allegedly kidnapping a five-year-old boy at New Delhi Railway Station.
According to police, the incident began when a woman from Odisha, who had arrived in Delhi from Indore with her three children on Wednesday, reported her youngest son missing at the New Delhi Railway Station. The woman had been waiting on platform number 6/7 to catch a train to Cuttack.
The police launched an investigation and carefully reviewed CCTV footage from the station premises in collaboration with the distressed mother. This effort led them to identify an unidentified individual who was seen carrying the kidnapped child. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railways), Apoorva Gupta, confirmed this development.
In a breakthrough on Friday morning, the police received a tip-off that led them to apprehend a man named Vikas Verma. Verma, a resident of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh, was detained from the Shri Shakti Express. He had been working as a goldsmith until he was compelled to shut down his business the previous year due to substantial losses and accumulated debt. Verma had tied the knot in 2014 and had a child with his wife, but custody of the child had been awarded to his wife after their separation in 2021.
Following the closure of his business, Verma began working as a vendor on trains. On the day of the incident, he was present at the New Delhi Railway Station when he noticed a woman with three children waiting on a platform. Driven by a sinister impulse, he established a rapport with the youngest child by offering him food items and then stealthily disappeared with him.
Subsequent police investigations revealed that Verma had taken the abducted child to Katra in Jammu on the same night. He then returned to New Delhi Railway Station the following morning and boarded the Shri Shakti Express. It was uncovered that his intention was to transport the child to his hometown.
The man is now in police custody and is expected to face legal proceedings for the alleged kidnapping. The incident serves as a grim reminder of the importance of vigilance and security measures at public transportation hubs, police said. (With inputs from PTI)
