Jaipur: A three-year-old girl who was abducted late Thursday night while playing near her father’s vegetable shop in Malviya Nagar was rescued safely within four hours by Jawahar Circle police. The accused, a hotel worker and alleged drug addict, was arrested from his home where he was found sleeping with the child.According to police, the child was playing near her father’s shop in Sector-13 around 10:45pm when she went missing. Her father, a resident of Sector-11, searched the area with neighbours but could not locate her. Around midnight, he approached the Jawahar Circle police station to file a report.DCP (East) Tejaswini Gautam said that a case of kidnapping was immediately registered, and a search operation was launched under SHO Madan Lal Kadwasra. The police team contacted nearby shop and showroom owners to access CCTV footage. In one of the recordings, a man was seen staggering away with the child in his arms. Alarmed by the possibility that the abductor could be a drug addict, police began tracking the individual’s movements and mapped the route captured in the footage.Within four hours, the suspect was identified as Ashok Kumar Barman (30), a native of Cooch Behar in West Bengal.He lives with his mother in Sector-7, Malviya Nagar, and washes dishes at a hotel for livelihood. A police team raided his home and found the girl in the house. The girl was rescued unharmed. During interrogation, Ashok claimed he found the girl crying on the road and brought her home out of concern. His mother corroborated the story, stating that her son told her the child was lost.
