18 August,2015 08:22 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
The crook even let the 15-yr-old drive the car to the police station, after the boy persuaded him that the only way to avoid getting into trouble was to abandon his accomplices and surrender to cops
Kidnapped by three strangers, a 15-year-old boy managed to escape their clutches thanks to his presence of mind and a gift of the gab. All it took was a few moments alone with one of the crooks for the teenager the son of a jeweller in Vasai to convince him that they had made a big mistake by abducting him.
After the 15-year-old was kidnapped by three strangers, he convinced one of them to turn himself to the police. The boy drove the car to the police station himself. Pic/Hanif Patel
The nervous kidnapper let the boy drive the car all the way to the police station so he could turn himself in. The teen, Rahul Dera was on his way to school in Vasai on August 13, when one of the accused, Balu Munde approached him saying he had been hired as his bodyguard by his father.
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He told the boy there was danger to his life and led him towards a car. There, Rahul saw the two other accused Vicky Yadav and Sachin. Sensing something was amiss, the boy began to yell, but was soon subdued at knifepoint. Rahul even tried calling his father from his cell phone, but the goons caught on to this and snatched the phone from him.
They began to head towards Latur, and the kidnappers even made Rahul change out of his school uniform so as to not arouse any suspicion. Once they had neared Latur, Sachin got down in search of alcohol, while Balu went to withdraw cash from an ATM.
Alone in the car with the third kidnapper, Vicky, the boy began to talk about how much trouble the trio would get into for abducting him. The teen said he could help Vicky if he was reunited with his father. Vicky said he did not know how to drive and the boy lied and said he knew how to drive. They left the other two culprits at the spot and Rahul drove the car to Latur police station.
"When they reached the police station, they found no one there. The boy then realised that the other two accused would find them soon, and began to reverse the car. Because he didn't know how to drive properly, one of the wheels went into a manhole and ruptured.
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This is when passers-by came running to see what had happened," said PSI Bharat Salunkhe from Manikpur police station, where an FIR was registered later. Rahul then told locals that he had been kidnapped by Vicky and two others and was trying to escape from them. The locals caught hold of Vicky and handed him over to the cops.
The boy was reunited with his family and a case was filed at the Manikpur police station against Vicky and his absconding accomplices. "One of the kidnappers told Rahul that his father, Uttam Dera had borrowed Rs 3.5 lakh from Balu Munde, but had been unable to return it in the past few months.
He said Balu had decided to kidnap Rahul to recover his money along with interest, amounting to R5.5 lakh," said PSI Salunkhe, praising Rahul for thinking on his feet and saving himself.
