Had the Mumbai police team and Uttar Pradesh special task force officers been two hours late in barging into Sujit Kumar Bind’s house in Handia near Varanasi, five-year-old Karnit Shah would have been killed by the abductor.
Had the Mumbai police team and Uttar Pradesh special task force officers been two hours late in barging into Sujit Kumar Bind’s house in Handia near Varanasi, five-year-old Karnit Shah would have been killed by the abductor. Police sources say that on April 19, information about the arrest of Bind’s three accomplices got leaked, following which the team had to act swiftly to trace the boy.
According to police sources, on April 18, Sandeep Waruse, Usman Khan and Sohanlal Gupta were picked up by the police for questioning in Mumbai. “Their interrogation revealed that the boy was being held captive by their accomplice Bind in Handia tehsil of Uttar Pradesh. On April 19, a police team left for Varanasi and sought the help of the UP STF,” said a senior police officer requesting anonymity.
He added that a hectic search operation was launched and as many as 15 houses were raided by the police in Handia before Karnit was rescued. “The police team was anxious to trace Karnit as soon as possible, since we knew that in the absence of contact between the arrested accused and Bind, the latter will try to do something,” said the officer.
Police sources claim that Bind’s brother, who stays in Mumbai, had told his family back home about the arrest of Bind’s friends. “On the morning of April 20, at around 3am, Bind was apprehended and Karnit was rescued. During interrogation, Bind revealed that he had learnt about the arrest of his accomplices and had planned to throw Karnit into the Ganga at 5am, which flows near the house where Karnit was kept. We were very fortunate to have traced Karnit on time, as a delay of a few hours could have led to his death,” said the officer.
Smart kid, kept his cool
Investigators say Karnit is a very smart kid, who behaved according to the situation. “He told us that he was happy during his stay with the kidnappers, as they provided him with good and adequate food at regular intervals, and also had a stock of chocolates. The boy probably knew that he is among strangers and therefore never raised an alarm,” said a senior police officer. He added that there is a possibility that if Karnit had resisted, the kidnappers would have killed him.
The investigators will now reconstruct the sequence of events and Karnit is likely to visit all the places to where he was taken by his kidnappers.
Asked about the kidnappers’ motive, the officer said, “Waruse, Khan and Gupta have confessed to the crime and claim they had taken a loan and had kidnapped the boy to repay it. However, when we made inquiries with the person from whom the trio is said to have taken the loan, he denied giving any money to them. The accused are cooking up stories and the exact motive is not clear yet.”
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