RELIEF: Gautham Krishna and his parents Chakravarthi and Dhanalakshmi — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: Eight-year-old Gautham Krishna, who was kidnapped from Hebbal police station limits here on April 27 and rescued by the police in Gwalior on May 3, was brought to Bangalore on Friday.

Gautham's parents — Chakravarthi and Dhanalakshmi — were overjoyed to see him when he reached the city, accompanied by a police team from Bangalore.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) M.C. Narayana Gowda told presspersons that two persons who worked for Gautham's father, a tiles trader, had allegedly kidnapped the boy from near his house at Cholanayakanahalli. They had taken him to Gwalior by train and held him captive in a house there. The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of Rs. 7 crore and brought it down to Rs. 2 crore, he said.

Mr. Chakravarthi told the kidnappers that he could not raise Rs. 2 crore but would sell his house and raise Rs. 20 lakh, Mr. Narayana Gowda said.

It was the presence of mind exhibited by Gautham that provided clues to the police and helped them apprehend Murarilal (22) and Vinod Singh (18), who had allegedly kidnapped him. While the two persons were asleep, Gautham used their mobile phone and contacted his father in Bangalore. "It was the call that led the police to the kidnappers," Mr. Narayana Gowda said. The accused are now in Gwalior jail and they would be brought to the city after completing legal procedures, he added.

Gautham said that during captivity, the two accused allegedly beat him when he asked them to take him back to his parents. But they gave him food and water, he added.

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