Happy end to kidnap drama

A three-and-a-half-year-old girl kidnapped during a train journey with her mother Bindu from New Delhi to Kerala a fortnight ago has been traced and restored to the mother by the Railway Police.

Three men and a woman – who is the sister of Bindu's husband Jobin – have been arrested in this connection. Jobin, who masterminded the kidnap with a view to get rid of Bindu and remarry at the behest of his mother, is absconding.

Bindu and Jobin, both employed in New Delhi, fell in love and got married in 1997 despite opposition from Jobin's mother.

Initially, Jobin along with his family plotted to kidnap the girl, Jubeena, and kill her and her mother to clear the way for a remarriage. But Jobin's sister Idukki Pambanar Paruvapettityil Bretty (45) agreed to look after the child for a price.

Reports say that it was Bretty's greed for money that saved Jubeena's life. She demanded Rs25,000 and the girl's share of property. After the kidnap, engineered by Jobin with two hirelings, Jobin was to seek divorce from Bindu on the ground that she was mentally ill.

The kidnap drama began with the two goons entering the same railway compartment in New Delhi as arranged by Jobin earlier.

Jobin, who pretended that he had not known the duo earlier, then requested them to be helpful to the mother and child. During the two-day journey they befriended the girl and vanished with her when the train reached Palakkad and the mother went to the bathroom.

Bretty and her son Samson (20) took charge of child from the duo – Peruvbanthanam Chamavilayil Kunjhumon (50) and Kallupurakkal Rasheed (38). The four were arrested as the child was traced to the house of a Hindu priest at the Malamkar Estate in Idukki district.

The needle of suspicion pointed to Jobin when he vanished after a brief visit to Bindu after he was summoned by the railway police as part of the investigations.

Jobin's mother, who played a key role in inducing her son to get out of the current wedlock by promising him a share of family property and a new marriage proposal fetching him a high sum as dowry, is ill and currently undergoing treatment.

She too would be arrested soon, according to sources.