Suspected Child-lifter goes missing

SNS, ALIPURDUAR, 23 JULY: The purported son of a man, who was beaten up black and blue by an irate mob in the Purba Bholardabri village under the Alipurduar police station yesterday, has gone missing, according to district police sources.

Karpik Basfore of Bihar was thrashed by an irate mob on suspicion of him being a child-lifter, while sources said his son was with him when the incident happened yesterday.

"Both of them had claimed that they were father and son before the police, who rescued them from the mob." sources said.

It is learnt that the police, after rescuing them, had released the duo and helped them board the New Jalpaiguri-bound DMU train from Alipurduar so that they could reach their home in Bihar. Surprisingly, the same person was thrashed again at the Dalgaon railway station in the afternoon on the same suspicion of being a child-lifter.

"This time, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) personnel rescued the victim, who handed him over to the police last night. However, the RPF said they did not find the child with him," sources said. It is learnt that the police have started investigating the matter and have alerted police stations and railway stations about the missing child. Police have also sent the photograph of the child to all the important police stations and railway stations.

"We are investigating the reason behind the victim getting down at Dalgaon station. We have started investigations as per a complaint lodged against the victim. The child whom we had found with him in the morning is missing so we are looking for him as well, " said the Alipurduar superintendent of police (SP), Nagenddra Nath Tripathy.

"There has been no case of child lifting or missing in the district. We are trying our best to make people aware against the child-lifting panic." he added. Notably, frequent incidents of lynching on suspicion of someone being a child lifter have been taking place in Alipurduar district for the past one month.

One person was lynched on the same suspicion yesterday at Sukhani Basti under the Nagrakata police station in Jalpaiguri district.

According to sources, though no lynching was recorded during the last one month in Alipurduar. The first incident of someone being thrashed on the suspicion happened recently on 26 June at the Patkapara tea plantation under the Alipurduar police station, and the last one took place yesterday.