The Tribune, February 21, 2005

Kidnapped boy released
Dharmendra Joshi
Tribune News Service

Panipat, February 20
Pankaj, a ninth class student and son of a railway booking clerk, who was kidnapped from Dawar Colony of the city on February 13, has been released by his captors. He reached his home on Sunday evening on foot after he was thrown by his abductors from a running truck near Asandh fly-over. Pankaj received multiple injuries as his captors had tortured him during his captivity to know his father’s mobile number to make ransom call. His parents took him to Bhim Sen Sachar hospital for his treatment soon after he reached his house in Dawar Colony.

Apparently very scared, Pankaj told The Tribune that he had been administered some intoxicated substance by the kidnappers before taking him with them. When he gained conscious, he found himself in a trolley, he added. Later he was taken to a single-room house situated in sugarcane fields, he said adding that he was locked in the room. “The kidnappers, four in number, inquired from me the mobile number of my father but when I told them that my father has no mobile phone, they beat me up.” he said.

Fourteen-year-old Pankaj said that all this continued for a week but when they learnt that his father was not a rich man, they bundled him in a truck throw him from the truck near Asandh fly-over. While his parents suspected that Pankaj had been kidnapped on February 13, the police claimed that he had not been kidnapped and did not register an FIR despite repeated requests from his father. A few hours before his release, Ms Suman Manjri, SP, Panipat, claimed that Pankaj had not been kidnapped.