MUMBAI, January 2: The case of mysterious kidnapping of 11-year-old Yusuf Shaikh from Santacruz has been cracked. The boy had invented the whole story of getting kidnapped to avoid going to school. The threatening call that his parents had received was made by a 16-year-old girl whom Yusuf had paid Rs 16 - Rs 1 for the call and the rest for her help.A standard V student of Sadhana High School, Yusuf had failed in five subjects in the last exam and had begun to hate school. On December 9, 1997 after returning from school he went out to play and did not return till late in the evening. Later that evening, his parents received this terse phone-call in Hindi. A female voice said: ``If your son is dear to you, come to Shastri Nagar School at Kurla and collect him.'' There was no demand for money. Yusuf's parents rushed to the Santacruz police station. Yusuf returned home the next day at noon and revealed that he had been kidnapped by two persons when he was playing nearby. The kidnappers, he said, gagged his
mouth, tied his hands and took him to Kurla (east) in a rickshaw. Later, they left him at the Santacruz station, he said.
Suspecting his answers, senior inspector Arvind Mahadik deputed investigating officer S A Thete-Patil to retrace the entire drama with Yusuf's help. ``The spot from which he claimed he was kidnapped was a crowded one and very close from his house. There is a rickshaw garage opposite the spot and a queue of rickshaws line up there for repairs.
Besides, there were six signals between the spot from where he said he was picked up and Kurla (east). At any one of them, the boy with his hand tied and mouth gagged would have attracted attention of other motorists,'' said Thete-Patil. Yusuf also told the officer that he did not cry when he was being carried away. ``This was puzzling...I decided to probe further,'' Thete-Patil said.
Finally, after three hours of questioning, Yusuf confessed he had invented the story so that he could stay away from the school. ``He told me that he wanted to
convince his mother that it was dangerous to send him out of the house...to school especially,'' explained Thete-Patil. Yusuf told this reporter that after making the call to his parents with the help of the girl, he roamed about till it was very dark. ``Then I went to Santacruz railway station, where someone gave me a vada-pav. I slept on the bench,'' he added hesitantly. ``I will not do it again,'' he swore, admitting the idea came from movies.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
