Palakkad: Walayar police here on Saturday arrested a drunk man for attempting to abduct a three-year-old boy at Kanjikode. The accused is Senthil Kumar from Salem in Tamil Nadu. The boy is the son of a migrant couple who are living in a rented house near Kanjikode railway station.
The timely act of autorickshaw drivers and some natives who noticed the man taking the child to the railway station reportedly foiled the abduction attempt. They blocked him after finding something suspicious in his behaviour and some of them were acquainted with the boy's family.
"The Tamil Nadu man along with the child hired my autorickshaw on Saturday around 6.30 pm. He told me to drop them off near the petrol pump. When I asked him about the child, he claimed that he found the child near the bus stop and revealed his plans to trace the child's parents after taking the boy in his car which was parked near the petrol pump. I told him that it was a serious issue and convinced him to take the boy to the spot where he found him. But he kept changing his statement as he was drunk. Later I alerted other autorickshaw drivers and took the vehicle to the stand. More people gathered in the stand and a migrant worker identified the boy. Soon, he contacted the boy's father and he reached the spot and took the child," the autorickshaw driver who played a crucial role in saving the child explained the incident.
It is learnt that the accused plotted the abduction after observing the boy who was playing in front of his house on Saturday noon.
In his statement to police, Senthil Kumar claimed that he approached the child when his parents left the scene and lured him with a chocolate. When the boy accepted the chocolate, the accused grabbed his hand and took him to the railway station. But before reaching the railway station, autorickshaw drivers and some natives nabbed him and handed over him to the police.
According to reports, police officials are interrogating the accused. So far, the probe team has neither revealed the background of the accused nor his purpose for the abduction.
