Lucknow, February 2:

Police’s juvenile delinquency, again

JUST two weeks after the Lucknow police goofed up on the provisions of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Amended Act 2000 by arresting six juveniles as majors, police are at it again. The 15-year-old boy arrested today was paraded before media cameras and his name was mentioned in a police press release in violation of Section 21 of the Act which prohibits the disclosure or publication of the name or photograph of an accused below 18 years of age. ‘‘He will be sent to the juvenile home and not the district jail,’’ was all CO Shachi Ghildiyal had to say on the issue.

A 15-YEAR-OLD boy covets a Nokia mobile model costing Rs 30,000. Knowing it was way out of the reach of his father, an assistant binder, turns to Bollywood potboiler Love ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega and the spate of kidnappings in Bihar for inspiration, and comes up with an ‘‘idea’’.

The Class IX student orchestrates his own kidnapping and asks for Rs 5 lakh from his father, threatening him that his son would be killed and his body thrown on the railway track if the demands were not met. For three days, the boy even manages to pull it off till police bust his game.

Last night, around 10.30, the boy was caught in Kanpur while making yet another call to his residence in Lucknow’s Jai Prakash Nagar. Police had placed a caller-ID facility on his home phone and traced the ransom calls to PCOs in Kanpur. They had been keeping a vigil ever since.

The boy has now been booked for staging a kidnapping and trying to extort money from own father.

Speaking to Newsline at the police station, the 15-year-old said: ‘‘My friends in school have the latest motorcycles and mobiles. Even the girls flashed mobiles. I used to feel so embarrassed going on my cycle to school. In fact, earlier I had even stolen money from my house and given the same on interest to other boys, but that was not enough to buy that latest mobile.’’

On January 31, the boy left for school at the usual time, around 7.30 am, but didn’t come back home. The same night, he caught a bus to Kanpur and soon after, made his first ‘‘threatening’’ call home. ‘‘I would place a handkerchief over the phone set to talk to my father. He was too naive to suspect anything,’’ said the boy.

However, the family did go to the police, almost immediately. After putting a caller-ID at the residence phone, Circle Officer, Alambagh, Shachi Ghildiyal met the boy’s friend Prashant. ‘‘He told us that the boy had told him not to visit his house for two-three days. It was then we suspected that this might be the handiwork of the boy along with some of his friends,’’ says Ghildiyal.

Their suspicions were strengthened when the boy, in his second call, asked that his friend Amit be given the money for the drop. However, Amit was reluctant to do this. Ghildiyal says they later found he was not involved in the plan and the boy was acting alone.

At the police station today, the boy showed signs of remorse. ‘‘I thought this was one way of making easy money by not harming anyone. News from Bihar of kidnappings had already scared my parents. At one time, hearing the cries of my mother and grandparents over the phone, I even thought of returning home, but then I thought it would all end in a day...I should not have done this. Say sorry to my family on my behalf,’’ he told Newsline.