Lucknow man kidnaps Delhi boy to pressure his mother to marry him; arrested

New Delhi: A man was apprehended from Lucknow hours after he allegedly kidnapped a four-year-old boy from outside his home here after the child's mother refused to marry him, the police said on Wednesday.

The incident took place on Sunday.

The accused, Sudhakar Singh (24), a flower seller from Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, was apprehended at Lucknow railway station while he was travelling with the child on Suhaildev Express, the police said.

"A PCR call was received at Amar Colony police station on October 12, reporting the kidnapping of a boy. The child was playing outside his house when he was taken away by the accused," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast) Hemant Tiwari said.

During the probe, it emerged that the boy's mother had been in contact with Singh through social media for about a year. The accused had threatened to abduct her son if she refused to be with him, the officer said.

On the day of the incident, the boy's father, who lodged the police complaint, spotted the accused near the family's residence around 1 pm, but he fled. Around 4.30 pm, the woman informed her husband that their son had gone missing and that she suspected Singh kidnapped him, the police said.

Based on the complaint, a case was registered under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. The movements of the accused were traced using a combination of technical surveillance and manual intelligence, they said.

Singh was intercepted in Lucknow within eight hours of the incident, they added.

During interrogation, the police said, Singh confessed to having kidnapped the boy to pressure his mother into marrying him.