The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Child’s testimony gets abductor six years jail

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Child’s testimony gets abductor six years jail

Raghava M.

Five-year-old’s presence of mind helps police trace him in Gwalior

Goutam Krishna was kidnapped on April 27, 2006, while he was playing with his friends
The child called his father from a STD booth when the abductor fell asleep

BANGALORE: The presence of mind of a five-year-old boy helped send his kidnapper to a six-year jail term three years later.

Goutam Krishna sneaked out of the room in Gwalior when the kidnapper was asleep and called his father, which helped the Bangalore police rescue him.

His narration of events before the 2nd Fast Track Sessions Court on November 30 was the clinching evidence that led it to convict Muralilal Kirar (22) of Gopalpura in Gwalior and sentence him to six years rigorous imprisonment and a Rs. 6,000 fine.

It was summer vacation for school and Krishna was playing with his friends in Kupparaju Park at Amarjyothi Layout near Hebbal on April 27, 2006 when two men came up to him and asked for his father’s mobile number, and then the landline number of his residence.

Krishna ignored them, but during a break in the play they dragged him into a vehicle and took him to the Kempe Gowda Bus Station and then to Gwalior by train.

Krishna’s father Chakravarthy, a tiles dealer, contacted the Hebbal police the next day. Later, he received a ransom call for Rs. 2 lakh and then for Rs. 7 lakh.

The police remained clueless about his whereabouts till Krishna made that phone call to his father from a nearby STD booth when the kidnapper and his accomplice, a minor, fell asleep.

A Bangalore City police team, led by inspector S. Badrinath, rescued the boy in Gwalior.

Krishna, who is now aged eight, was among the nine witnesses examined by the public prosecutor B. Laxman. Judge G.R. Revankar convicted Kirar under Section 364 (kidnapping) and Section 342 (wrongful confinement) of the Indian Penal Code.

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