Delhi Police has arrested a 34-year-old man on Friday for allegedly kidnapping a five-year-old child from New Delhi Railway Station (NDRS), an official said.
The accused was identified as Vikas Verma, a native of Hathras in Uttar Pradesh.
Sharing the details, a senior police official said that on Wednesday, one woman, a resident of district Cuttack in Odisha, came to the police station and reported the missing of her five-year-old son.
“She had come from Indore on Wednesday morning, to catch a train for Cuttack. When she was present on platform no 6-7 at NDRS, along with her three children, her youngest child, went missing—possibly kidnapped by someone,” said a senior police official, adding that she then approached local police.
During the probe, CCTVs footage of the station premises were scanned along with the complainant.
“An unknown person, aged about 30 to 35-year-old, was seen carrying the victim’s child. Photographs of the alleged person along with the kidnapped child were developed and given wide circulation and dissemination,” said the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Railway unit) Apoorva Gupta.
“On Friday morning, following a specific tip off, Vikas Verma was nabbed from Shri Shakti Express. The clothes worn by the accused at the time of the incident, have also been recovered,” said the DCP.
On interrogation, it was revealed that Verma is a goldsmith by profession and one year ago he lost his business due to huge losses and heavy debts.
“He was married in the year 2014 and has a child born out of the said wedlock in 2015. His wife separated from him in 2021 alongwith the child. After losing his business he started working as a petty vendor in the running trains,” said the DCP.
“On the day of the incident, he was at New Delhi Railway Station and saw a woman along with her three children.
“He got tempted to take away the youngest child of that woman. So he first befriended the child by offering him some eatables and then disappeared along with the child, taking advantage of the crowd,” said the official.
“He took the child to Katra the same night and returned to NDRS on August 17 morning on board Shri Shakti Express. He was planning to take the child further to his native place from NDRS.” the official added.