In a swift and coordinated operation, the Commissionerate Police of Bhubaneswar-Cuttack rescued a nine-year-old boy within six hours after he was kidnapped from Nirakarpur in Odisha’s Khurdha district on Tuesday. The child was found unharmed, and seven people — including two women — have been arrested in connection with the crime.
The Incident: A Shocking Betrayal
The victim, identified as Pratyush, was abducted while returning home from school in the morning. Shockingly, the mastermind behind the kidnapping was someone known to the family — 22-year-old Subhrakant Mohapatra, also known as Basuni. He is the cousin of Pratyush’s tuition teacher and a resident of the same village, Panchagaon, under Airfield police limits in Bhubaneswar.
Subhrakant was aware that Pratyush’s father, Arta Ranjan Kalia, had recently received a large sum of money from selling a piece of land. Seeing an opportunity to extort a ransom, he hatched the kidnapping plot.
The Kidnapping Plan
Using his familiarity with the family, Subhrakant approached Pratyush while he was on his way home from school and convinced the child to go with him under the pretext of visiting a doctor.
After abducting the boy, Subhrakant handed him over to his associates — Somnath Das (21), Chinmaya Kumar Nayak (22), Sandip Routray (22), Sagar Nayak (21), Sujata Jena (19), and Nibedita Das (20). The group hid the child in a rented house in Nirakarpur.
Soon after, the gang made a ransom call to Pratyush’s parents, threatening to kill the child if their demands weren’t met.
To mislead the family and police, Subhrakant returned to the village and pretended to be an eyewitness. He falsely told the parents that armed men had kidnapped the child at gunpoint in front of him.
Police Action: Rapid and Strategic
Commissioner of Police, S. Dev Datta Singh, said that the police were informed about the kidnapping around 10:30 a.m. Realizing the urgency and danger, the police immediately formed four dedicated teams to handle the case.
By analyzing phone records and tracking mobile numbers, the police grew suspicious of Subhrakant. Their hunch paid off — the phone data led them to the rented house where the boy was being held.
Within just six hours of the incident, Pratyush was rescued safely from Nirakarpur. All seven accused, including those who kept the child captive, were arrested.
