Five-month-old baby kidnapped for ransom found murdered in Cachar

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

SILCHAR: A five-month-old baby was kidnapped for ransom and later murdered, following which three persons have been arrested. Police said on Saturday that Dhruba Jyoti Nath, whose father Debo Jyoti Nath is a motor mechanic, was abducted from their house at Kazidahar in Cachar district late Tuesday night while he was asleep beside his parents. His mother is Lovely Nath.

Expressing shock at the incident, Cachar Superintendent of Police (SP) Banowar Lal Meena said that within 24 hours, the police Special Investigation Team (SIT) traced the main culprit — Rajiv Chauhan — along with three of his accomplices including a woman from different tea gardens adjoining the Lakhipur subdivision. Intensive interrogations led to the recovery of the baby's body buried under a deserted culvert at Amjurghat on the Sonai -Matinagar Road.

Professional killers Like Rajiv Chauhan and his accomplices Mandip Rai and Khukan Bouri reportedly committed the heinous crime of abduction, murder and burial after past midnight. They had demanded Rs 10 lakh as ransom money. But the wheel of fortune turned against them as they were trapped by the police.

Even as the SP regretted on not being able to save the baby, he, however, assured the agitated people of Barak Valley, "Charge sheet will soon be filed against the accused and his accomplices for trial and their punishment as per IPC provisions. The accused persons abducted the baby after breaking open the window panes when his parents were fast asleep at their house at Kazidahar Part-II under Sonai Police Station, 25 km from here. The incident happened around 2 pm last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker of Assam Assembly Aminul Haque Laskar, under whose constituency the village of Kazidahar falls, rushed to the spot from his isolation at home after being tested COVID-19 positive. He told The Sentinel, "It was a barbaric and inhuman act, unthinkable and unimaginative." He demanded that the culprits be put on a fast-track trial and be given exemplary punishment.

IANS adds: The kidnappers contacted the parents on Wednesday and demanded Rs 10 lakh for handing back the child but reduced the demand to Rs 1.5 lakh after negotiations.

"When a woman relative of the family went to a tea garden on Friday to hand over the money, police personnel in disguise arrested the culprits, who admitted to their crime," a police official said.

Police is now looking for a few other accused in the case.

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