The Hindu : Front Page : Greed nearly cost him his daughter

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Friday, Feb 27, 2009
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Greed nearly cost him his daughter

Staff Reporter

— Photo: Sampath Kumar. G.P.

REUNION: Apeksha with her parents in Bangalore on Thursday.

Bangalore: This is one fortune-teller who could not predict he would bungle a kidnapping. The story also has a happy ending with the young victim being reunited with her parents.

The Bangalore Rural district police arrested three men in Jolarpet in Tamil Nadu and rescued 10-year-old Apeksha, who was kidnapped from Hoskote on February 20.

Apeksha, a student of St Joseph’s School in Hoskote, was handed over to her overjoyed father, Chikkabyre Gowda, on Thursday. Inspector-General of Police (Central Range) Kamalpanth identified the accused as Shyam (23) and his associates Kiran alias Kiran Kumar (19) and Rajesh (20), all from Andhra Pradesh.

According to the IGP, the accused demanded Rs. 50 lakh as ransom from Mr. Gowda, a farmer of Chikkahullur village near Hoskote. Acting on their investigation, the police raided a place in Jolarpet and arrested the accused on Wednesday.

Shyam, the main accused, is a fortune-teller. Some weeks back, Mr. Gowda had met him at the house of yet another fortune-teller in Hoskote. Shyam introduced himself as a priest and said he had been looking for a “20-nailed tortoise”, for which he would pay as much as Rs. 5 lakh.

“He tripled a currency note of Rs. 100 in front of me by using his jadoo. I wanted to become rich and called him home,” Mr. Gowda told reporters on Thursday.

So taken up by Shyam was Mr. Gowda that he invited him to perform a puja, during the course of which the accused drugged the prasada. When Mr. Gowda lost consciousness, Shyam reportedly kidnapped the child.

Later, all the three accused made several telephone calls from different parts of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka till they were nailed in Natrampalli in Jolarpet, IGP Kamalpanth said.

Another police official said the accused were inspired by a Telugu film in their misadventure.

“They kidnapped me from my house and took me to places whose names I don’t know,” said Apeksha.

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