Three Missing Shimla Boarding School Students Found, Kidnapper Arrested

PTI, Shimla, Aug 10, 2025 :  Three class 6 students of a boys' boarding school in Shimla were recovered from a house in Chaithla village of Kotkhai area on Sunday, a day after they went missing during a day out. Police have arrested 45-year-old Sumit Sood on charges of kidnapping and making threatening calls to their parents.

A source revealed that one of the missing students is the son of a politician based in Punjab's Mohali, another is a nephew of an Independent councillor in Haryana's Karnal, and the third is from Kullu in Himachal Pradesh.

According to the police, the three students were found locked in a room on the fourth floor of a building in Kotkhai, which is 58 km from Shimla city. Masks, ropes, and sharp-edged weapons were also found in the room. Police said the kidnapper had made threatening calls to the boys' parents from an international number.

The boys, police reported, left the school at 12:09 pm on Saturday. When they did not return by 5 pm, the school authorities informed the police. A case was registered under Section 137B of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (kidnapping minors) at the New Shimla Police Station based on the complaint of the school principal.

After leaving the school, the boys reportedly boarded a car that moved towards the upper Shimla area. About 150 police personnel, along with drones and cyber teams, were deployed to search for the students, according to New Shimla Police Station SHO Manoj Thakur.

During the students' absence, their family members met Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to seek his intervention in the case.

Shimla Deputy Commissioner Anupam Kashyap said the boys underwent a medical checkup after their recovery. "The school activity calendars will be reviewed in light of the incident, and safety monitoring will be intensified. Both the parents and the schools need to be more vigilant," he said. He added that safety advisories to all schools to prevent such incidents would be issued soon.