Patna: A Class IX student who was kidnapped from the posh New Patliputra Colony on Tuesday morning was rescued in the evening from the Gardanibagh area.
The family members of Zaid Mallick, 14, a student of Holy Mission School Danapur, said he was abducted when he was going to catch his school bus.
A neighbour of Zaid said: "Around 8.30am, Zaid, like other days, was going to catch his bus from GD Mishra Road at Patliputra Colony when he was abducted. The family members came to know about the incident around 11am, when they received a call from the kidnappers."
The kidnappers, sources said, had demanded Rs 1.5 crore for Zaid's release.
Central range inspector-general of police (IG) N.H. Khan confirmed that Zaid had been found.
Additional superintendent of police (ASP), operations, Rakesh Dubey, who was part of the team that recovered Zaid, said: "The police have recovered Zaid from the Gardanibagh area. Four men in a car had kidnapped the boy in the morning."
The kidnappers, led by a man called Sashi, have been arrested. They had kept Zaid confined in a room in Gardanibagh.
"It was a planned kidnapping, and they knew about the financial condition of Zaid's father," ASP Dubey said.
The Mallicks are originally from Asthanwi in Sheikhpura district. Zaid's father Mohammed Arif Mallick used to work as an engineer in Kuwait. He returned to Patna a few years back and built a house at New Patliputra colony.
The Mallicks live in the second floor of three-storey building. The first and third floor have been rented out.
"The Mallicks also own two shops at Maharaja Kameshwar Complex on Fraser road," a local resident said on condition of anonymity.
Earlier in the day, as the news of Zaid's kidnapping spread, senior police officers swung into action.
Those who visited the family included director-general of police Rajesh Kumar, Patna senior superintendent of police Manu Maharaaj, deputy superintendent of police (DSP), law and order, Shibli Nomani and Patliputra police station house T.N. Tiwari.
The police also gathered information from CCTV cameras installed in the area.
All local police stations were alerted about the kidnapping incident.
Tuesday's incident is the third kidnap of a school student in the city in less than 30 days.
On January 29 this year, the cops had rescued 7-year-old Saurabh Kumar hours after he was abducted.
On January 19, 14-year-old Raunak Kumar, who had been kidnapped for ransom two days ago, was found dead.
Three suspects in Raunak's murder case, Jairam, Parsuram Paswan and Bittu alias Rashid, on Tuesday opposed the police's move to conduct narco-analysis test on them.
