Boy’s alarm foils kidnap of one-year-old at Triplicane

The child escaped the kidnap attempt after a seven-year-old boy raised an alarm alerting the public.

According to police, the children — Pavithra (1) and Joseph (7) — hails from Narikkurava families in Villupuram, who had migrated to Chennai in search of better life. Around noon on Saturday, the children’s parents had gone to get lunch for the family, leaving the seven-year-old in charge of the child.

As they were sitting on the pavement, a man, later identified as S Velu (28), came there. Realising that the adults in the family were not around, Velu tried to grab Pavithra from Joseph’s hands. Alarmed by this, the boy screamed out loud, which alerted the public in the vicinity. By then, Velu had the girl in one hand, and dragged Joseph with the other, even as the latter continued to cry on top of his voice.

The people who gathered at the spot noticed there was something amiss and stopped Velu. When they realised that the man was trying to kidnap the child, they caught Velu and assaulted him.

Police personnel from the nearby Marina police station who rushed to the spot arrested the kidnapper, a resident of Dharmapuri. He was booked for abduction and remanded in judicial custody.