Ghaziabad: Attempted kidnapping of nursery student a case of mistaken identity, say police

The police on Sunday said a case lodged for attempted kidnapping of a six-year-old school girl in Indirapuram was in fact a case of mistaken identity. Senior officers said the suspect captured by the school’s CCTV cameras had gone there to pick up his niece who has the same name as that of the six-year-old he inadvertently tried to pick up. But the teachers did not allow her to go with him.

The police in this connection registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanihta sections 137(2) (kidnapping) and 62 (attempt to commit offences punishable by imprisonment, including life imprisonment) at Indirapuram police station on December 6.

The complainant, a resident of Nyaya Khand in Indirapuram, said a man on November 29 approached the school and asked the school authorities to hand over the child after taking her name.

He said it was a routine for him and his wife to drop and pick up their two daughters (the eldest eight-year-is a student of the same school) from school daily.

“When the classes got over on November 29, a man approached the school and asked teachers to send the girl (mentioning her name and class), along with him. When teachers asked for his identity, he identified himself as Ajay and told them that he was her uncle and was sent by her father to pick the child up. However, my daughters denied knowing him and teachers immediately called me up. I said I sent no one to pick up my daughter. In between, the man went away but was captured by CCTV cameras at the school,” the father said in the FIR.

He approached the school authorities later asking them to initiate legal action but they asked him to file a police complaint. The school provided him the CCTV footage and he went to the police.

An FIR was registered at Indirapuram police station and four teams were formed to investigate the case.

The police on Sunday night revealed that it was not a case of attempted kidnapping but a case of mistaken identity as two girls with the same name studied in the same class but in two different schools near to each other.

Police said with the help of CCTV footage and local information they traced Ajay Kumar, who hails from Bharatpur in Rajasthan.

“His brother and sister-in-law stay in Makanpur in Indirapuram and Ajay was visiting them to attend a wedding on November 28. Since his brother and sister-in-law were busy with the wedding preparations, they asked Ajay to fetch their daughter from school,” said Swatantra Kumar Singh, assistant commissioner of police, Indirapuram.

The ACP said Ajay was confused as he was from out of town and did not reach the school of her niece; instead he landed up at the nearby school.

“Ajay inadvertently went to the other school where there was a girl with the same name as his niece studying in the same section. He mentioned the child’s name and asked teachers to send her along with him. Our teams traced him and got the entire matter verified. The two families were finally convinced that the incident happened out of confusion and the matter was settled,” the ACP said.