Noida boy untraced | Say a prayer

Noida: More than 24 hours after the daring daylight kidnapping of Adobe India CEO Naresh Gupta's son shocked the satellite township of Delhi, UP police are still looking for clues about the abductors.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police have begun a "parallel investigation" taking into view the possibility of the kidnappers sneaking into the capital.

"There is a possibility of the kidnappers sneaking into the capital as Delhi is a neighbouring state. We are also not ruling out the possibility of the involvement of criminals here in the abduction," he said.

They have also interrogated the watchman Kameshwar and maid Seema while not ruling out the possibility of an insider's hand in the case.

Looking for possible leads, the police are also questioning those serving time for kidnapping.

Police officers here say investigation into cases like kidnapping was an informal process and was based largely on developing various inputs. "We are working from our point of view and are in touch with our sources," the officer added.

The Gupta family received a ransom call early on Tuesday morning.

Three-year-old Anant Gupta was kidnapped on Monday morning by two motorcycle-borne youths from outside his residence in Noida.

Upon hearing the news of the kidnapping, a stunned and panicky Naresh Gupta caught the earliest flight back to Delhi and arrived at his Noida residence early on Tuesday morning.

Along with relatives, Gupta tried to reconstruct the shocking details of the incident and joined his family in their prayers for Anant’s safe return.

The entire Gupta clan stayed awake through Monday night, anxiously awaiting news of Anant and finally heard from the kidnappers for a ransom call. However, the amount has not been disclosed.

Naresh Gupta appealed to the kidnappers on camera to return his son, while requesting the media to play down the issue. "Mere bachche ne kiska kuch nahi bigada hai, use lauta dijiye," he said. (My child has not harmed anyone, please give him back).

"My son is with some unknown people, and if you (media) continue to report, it might have a bad impact on him," he added.

Anant is a pre-nursery student at the prestigious Lotus Valley School, situated on the Express Highway. His elder sister Kavita too studies in the same school.

Their mother, Nidhi, was inside the house at the time of the incident.

Police launch massive hunt

Though the Special Task Force of UP Police has been roped in to investigate the kidnapping and all roads leading out of Noida are being strictly patrolled, police are yet to stumble upon any conclusive evidence about the abductors’ identity.

The police are also trying to elicit information from the maid servant Aasha, who was with Anant when he was snatched away.

"We are trying to workout the gang that could be involved in the kidnapping. We are also getting the credentials of the house staff checked for clues. We suspect that someone from the house staff could be involved," said Inspector General of Police Meerut range, N B Singh.

“Considering the number of teams and way we are proceeding with this case, we will be able to crack it very soon, that much I can assure you," he added.

Sector 15-A is home to many influential people, ranging from retired senior bureaucrats to young corporate heads.

Considered one of the most affluent addresses in Noida, Sector 15-A is barely half-a-kilometre from Film City, home to a various television news channels, including CNN-IBN.

Despite the police claims about high security and heightened vigilance, there were no policemen present in the vicinity of the Gupta residence, except for two private security guards at their gate.

Shockingly, there was no police presence either at the scene of crime or anywhere in the upmarket sector 15-A.

While life seemed to have returned to normal for the residents of the locality, the only reminder of the horrific kidnapping is the traumatised Gupta family, waiting in hope for the young boy's return.

(With inputs from Nilanjana Bose and Brijesh Pandey)

Say a prayer for Anant

<table width="248" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="2"> <tr bgcolor="#AE111D"> <td height="20" valign="middle" bgcolor="#DB1524"><div align="center"><strong class="Wtext11">HIGH-PROFILE KIDNAPPINGS</strong></div></td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#e7e7e7"> <td width="248" height="20" valign="middle" class="Btext11 pLeft10"><img src="/pix/common/bullet.gif" width="7" height="7" alt="bullet" />Fifteen-year-old Vaibhav Aggrawal was kidnapped from his hostel in Kota, Rajasthan, on June 10 2005. Kidnappers demanded Rs 10 crore from his father, Ramdev Aggarwal, a leading stock broker in Mumbai. The Rajasthan police then contacted the Delhi Police Crime Branch and 15 days of investigations later, the police arrested one Jai Kumar from Khatouli in Uttar Pradesh with the help of Special Task Force. One Rahul, an engineer working as a contractor with Ghaziabad Development Authority, was said to have masterminded the kidnapping, the police said. Vaibhav was safely recovered two weeks later. He had been driven from Kota to Delhi, taken to Dehra Dun, moved to Khatouli and finally brought to Ghaziabad from where he was rescued.</td> </tr> <tr> <td width="248" height="20" valign="middle" class="Btext11 pLeft10"><img src="/pix/common/bullet.gif" width="7" height="7" alt="bullet" /> Six-year-old Lakshit Malhotra was kidnapped from outside his school in Pitampura on September 23. Lakshit, a Class II student, went missing from outside his school and his father, Sameer Malhotra, lodged a missing report the next day. Later, he purportedly received a call from the kidnappers demanding Rs 20 lakh as ransom amount for Lakshit's release. While one Vineet Kumar of Budh Vihar was arrested for the kidnapping, investigations showed the boy had been taken to Etah for transferring him to a professional gang.</td> </tr> </table>

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