26 January,2012 07:25 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
In what could prove as a major embarrassment for the men in khaki, a 12-year-old boy who was abducted by a duo from outside his school in Bandra on Monday, was rescued from Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) on Tuesday night after the kidnappers received the ransom money of Rs 5 lakh.
The kidnapping
According to the Bandra police, Eric Fernandes, a class VII student of St Andrews School, was kidnapped by an unidentified duo that fled the spot in an Indica after committing the crime on Monday afternoon.
The officials added that soon after Eric's kidnapping, his father, an interior designer, received a ransom call.
Blaming Fernandes for the losses they had incurred in their business, the kidnappers demanded Rs 10 lakh in return for his son. Fearing for his son's life , Fernandes approached the Bandra police for help.
Acting on their advice, Eric's father negotiated with the kidnappers and brought down the ransom amount to Rs 5 lakh. Once the deal was finalised, the cops initiated their probe by tracing the kidnappers' call to the boy's father to tell him the location to drop the money.
Cops outsmarted
Sensing police involvement in the case, the kidnappers called off their plan to collect the money on Monday, and instructed Fernandes to wait for further instructions.
But before doing so, they had made Fernandes go from one spot to another. Moreover, the kidnappers outsmarted the cops by disposing off the SIM cards they had used to call Fernandes, thus denying the cops any opportunity of zeroing in on them.
The next day, they asked Fernandes to board the first class compartment of a Borivli local in the evening and wait for further instructions.
In a short while, Fernandes received a call from one of the kidnappers asking him to throw off the bag of money between Khar and Santacruz at a flashlight signal, which would go on and off.
Fearing for his child's life, Fernandes followed their instructions. After the abductors received the ransom money, they called Fernandes and asked him to collect his son from a particular spot in BKC.
Official word
"The boy does not have any injury marks on his body. The kidnappers had fed the boy and did not harm him.
However, we have sent the boy for a medical examination and registered a case of kidnapping against the unidentified kidnappers. We are now tracing all the telephone numbers the child's father had received calls from," said an officer from Bandra police station.
"The kid has seen his abductors and would be able to identify them," the officer added, requesting anonymity.
Their 'bright' idea
The kidnappers asked Fernandes to board a Borivli local and throw the bag of money between Khar and Santacruz upon seeing a blinking flashlight. They disposed of the SIM cards after they got the money.
