Schoolboy feared kidnapped in Buxar

Patna: A rice mill owner’s 12-year-old son is feared kidnapped from Buxar district, police said on Sunday.

The boy, Shashank also known as Munna, was allegedly abducted when he was playing with some other children in an agricultural field near his maternal uncle’s house in Simri Dudhpatti village under the jurisdic-tion of Simri police station in Buxar, around 140km west of Patna, on Saturday evening.

Shashank’s father Rakesh Rai a.k.a Rinku Rai, who owns a rice mill in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, told the police that the family members became alarmed when Shashank didn’t return home.

His mother searched for him in neighbours’ houses but the boy was nowhere to be found.

Finally the relatives decided to report the incident to the Simri police, which registered a case.

Shashank’s maternal uncle Shashishekhar Rai told the police that Shash-ank had come to his resi-dence from his native village Bhati under Balia district in Uttar Pradesh on June 5.

Shashank had come to his maternal uncle’s house with his mother to spend the summer vacation.

A few local residents told the family that they had spotted a sports utility vehicle parked under a tree at a stone’s throw distance from the field where Shashank and the other children were playing.

The family and the neighbours fear that a professional gang has kidnapped Shashank.

Dumraon sub-divisional police officer K.K. Singh said that Shashank’s family members have not yet received any ransom call.

“A special police team has been set up and raids are underway to find the boy,” he told The Telegraph over phone on Sunday.

Simri police station house officer (SHO) Ranjeet Kumar said the police conducted raids at known hideouts of criminals but nobody has yet been arrested.

“The police also questioned some residents of Simri Dudhpatti village,” the SHO added.

The station house officer said that the needle of suspicion also points to someone the family and the boy know because Shashank did not raise any alarm.

The police have already prepared a list of gangs that were operating in the region, he said.

The incident has sent shockwaves among the residents.

Many of them threatened to launch an agitation if the boy was not rescued within 48 hours.

Courtesy: The Telegraph