Rohit Kumar

Patna, May 2: Rohit Kumar, 15, a Class X student of DAV, Khagaul, who went for his IIT-JEE tuitions last morning, has still not returned home. His worried family feels he may have been kidnapped.

Sources said Rohit left for the coaching class around 8am yesterday from his home in Magistrate Colony under Airport police station.

“He was cheerful as always when he left on his red scooty for his tuitions yesterday,” said his father Sanjay Kumar, an engineer with the civil public works department.

The coaching class starts at 9am and goes on till 1.30pm. When Rohit did not return till 3pm, his family got worried. Desperate calls to his mobile yielded no result as it was switched off.

Later, the family members found his scooty near a school in the Sheikhpura area.

Rohit has just taken his Class X boards. His results are expected on May 15.

“His classes at the institute on Boring Canal Road start around 9am and continue till 1.30pm. When he did not return till 3pm and his mobile remained switched off, we got desperate. We started searching for him after 4pm,” Anita Singh, Rohit’s mother, told The Telegraph.

His scooty was found in front of Government High School in the Sheikhpura area, around 2km from his home.

“We were searching frantically for him everywhere and found his scooty as we were passing through the area. This gave us goosebumps. We stopped and checked the vehicle carefully. It was his scooty. Rohit is a quiet boy but he is very intelligent and jovial. I do not know what to do now,” said the distraught mother.

The family members said they had not received any ransom call yet.

“No, we have not received any ransom calls. But we suspect he has been kidnapped. We have made enquiries and found out that he was seen with an elderly man last afternoon,” said Sanjay.

He added: “The representatives of the coaching institute have confirmed that Rohit was in class from 9am to 1.30pm. This was only his third day at the institute, so he does not have too many friends there. But some of the other students said he was seen with an elderly man.

“We lodged a missing diary with the SK Puri police station last evening,” the father said.

This morning, the relatives of the family arrived at their home to enquire about the boy.

On being asked if the boy could have run away, a relative said: “Why should he run away? There needs to be a reason for that.

“Most children who run away are weak in studies. But that’s not the case here. Rohit is a bright student. We are sure he will get good marks in the boards. He will not run away just like that. We request the police to take action and get him back,” added the relative.

The police, meanwhile, said investigations were on in full swing but nothing definite could be said yet.

“Right now, nothing concrete can be said. Investigations are on. We are gathering facts,” an officer said.

City superintendent of police Shivdeep Lande, however, said the police were treating it as an abduction case.

“The family have not received any calls yet. But the problem is that the boy’s mobile is switched off. If it was on, we could have tracked it,” said Lande.

He added that the cops were working hard and a breakthrough in the case could be expected soon.