In a swift operation, the Salem police rescued a 14-year-old boy within 12 hours after he was kidnapped by a gang that had held him for ransom on Saturday night. All the five kidnappers were arrested.

Rohit (14), son of Sivaji (47), a silver merchant of Aryagoundanpatti, who was living with his grandmother at Seth village in Darbur district of Maharashtra, had come to his parents’ house during the summer vacation.

According to police, Rohit went out on a moped on Saturday night. At about 7 pm, a youth asked him for a lift. After they travelled some distance, the youth pulled out a knife, asked to stop the vehicle and follow him. Four more youth joined the two at a particular place.

Sivaji received a call around 9 pm demanding a ransom of Rs 5 lakh and the caller threatened to kill the boy if the money was not paid. Sivaji agreed to give Rs 2 lakh in cash and the balance in the form of silver bars.

While negotiations were on, neighbours came to know of the kidnap and informed the police, who instructed Sivaji to fix a place where the money could be handed over to the captors. The kidnappers told Sivaji to meet them at a remote place in Aryagoundanpatti. The neighbours and the police followed him at a distance. While Sivaji was handing over a bag of money, the police and neighbours swooped down and overpowered the gang.

According to the police, two of the gang members who threatened to knife the boy and tried to get away, were caught. In the melee, Rohit’s hand was injured with a knife. Interrogations revealed that the kidnap was executed by some unemployed youth who wanted to earn some quick money. The arrested include Manikandan (19) and Raj (23) from Selathanpatti, Palanisamy (20), Sivaprakash (23) and Srinivasan (21) from Ariyagoundenpatti.

CoP Sunil Kumar Singh gave a cash award to the team of police that rescued the boy in less than 12 hours.