NAGPUR, NOV 3: The city police, already reeling under the impact of three major kidnappings over the last four months, had to go through some anxious moments for the better part of Wednesday evening following a kidnap alert, sounded by a caller at the Sadar police station.For more than a couple of hours, the top brass, including Commissioner of Police B N Mishra and his deputies R N Dahate and Sanjay Kumar, were on tenterhooks, monitoring a response act at the police control room.An alert was sounded across the city and rural areas and adjoining districts while a nakabandi was clamped. Thorough checking of vehicles on the city outlets was ordered.However, nothing substantial could emerge till late Wednesday night. Neither the police were approached with any complaint nor was there any trace of the vehicle, which, according to the caller, was used in the kidnapping.Not to leave things to chance, Mishra sounded wary about ruling out the call as a hoax, while directing the authorities to continue with their drill throughout the night. It all started around 7.25 pm when the duty officer at Sadar police station, PSI Parvekar, received a telephone call. The caller, speaking in Hindi, partially identified himself as Dr Raj and told Parvekar that a boy had been assaulted and kidnapped in a Tata Sumo jeep by some people from a place near the multi-storeyed District and Sessions Court complex at Civil Lines.The caller went on to provide the jeep's registration number as MH35-C9610 and disconnected the call when Parvekar sought to cross-check matters with him. Neither he could identify the kidnapped boy nor was he able to provide much details of what he had seen. Partial details notwithstanding, the call sent the police into a flurry of activities.Senior officials, including DCPs Dahate and Kumar, rushed to the Sadar police station and, later, to the control room and a nakabandi was ordered. Mishra too reached the control room for monitoring the situation.However, the police had very little to establish immediately the veracity of the call. The vehicle registration number, given by the caller, belonged to the Regional Transport Office at Gondia and efforts were on to trace the number and the vehicle owner. Till late tonight, no one approached the police with a complaint.Barely a fortnight back, 12-year-old Prachi, daughter of Dr Omprakash Harode, residing near old Pardi naka, was kidnapped by four men in a van from a place near Haldiram Factory under the Lakadganj police area.To their fortune, the police were able to arrest the kidnappers and rescue Prachi within two hours of the incident and this was primarily due to the promptness of Dr Harode in reporting the incident to the police and the act of vigilance by the Rural police in intercepting the van at Jalalkheda, 85 km from here along the Katol road.A fact, even acknowledged by Mishra when he had said at a press conference the same evening that he would be much happy if the police were able to detect the previous two cases too. One of which occurring nearly a month prior to the Prachi kidnapping, when 15-month-old Harekrishna Thakral, son of local incense trader, was kindapped.The other incident occurred in last week of May when two-and-half-year-old Aditya, son local jeweller Nilesh Parekh, was kidnapped from Deotale Layout at Ambajhari. In both the cases, the police haven't met with any success despite the best of their efforts.Against the backdrop of these events, the call by "Dr Raj" was bound to sent the police into a tizzy. Besides, forcing the officials to ensure that things weren't left to chance.The fact that parents and relatives of Aditya and Harekrishna approached the police chief earlier in the day, seeking permission for staging a dharna at Ramgiri - the Chief Minister's official residence here - was also playing on Mishra's mind as he monitored the police response from the control room.``I told them (the relatives), staging dharna was their prerogative but there was no way I could grant such permission,'' he said.
