Home, alone

Three-year-old kid is kidnapped in NOIDA. No news of him, at least for public consumption, for a few days. Then an autorickshaw turns up at his home. It has the driver and the kid, that's all. The guard at the home did not recognize the child, but "on the auto-driver's insistence took him inside."

The driver claims two men, one with long red hair who didn't seem educated, gave him some money to deliver the kid home alone. The kid says he was put on the rickshaw by bhaiyya, "which was how he kept referring to his abductors." The police claims they put the boy in the rickshaw at a point 50 km from his home, "as part of a strategy" after rescuing him. (That is, the police are saying they sent the three-year-old alone on a 50-km journey home, "as part of a strategy.")

The boy's father spoke to "the best kidnapping consultants", who advised him that "it was better to deal with professionals rather than amateurs who can get stressed and act drastically." He also says the rickshaw driver "might be seeking cheap publicity."

If you're thinking, by gum, what a simple and straightforward, black and white, cut and dried affair -- hey, I'm thinking just the same.

Though I would like to know how "kidnapping consultants" make a living, and how they know who is and who is not a "professional" kidnapper.

Any tips on those scores, welcome.

(All quotes from various press reports).