The Ambattur police department in Chennai has apprehended an engineer for kidnapping an 18-month-old child with the bizarre name of 'Lockdown'. The kid belongs to the couple, natives of Odisha and the police officials have nabbed the engineer who is the main accused on Thursday - February 10 and remanded him in judicial custody. 

According to reports, 28-year-old engineer Balamurugan, a native of Erode, is unmarried and wanted to raise a child. He had approached a worker named Sushanta Pradhan, whom he knew for three years. They together made a plan to kidnap 18-month-old child Lockdown, who is the fourth child of Kishore and Puthini couple from Odisha. Kishore has been working as a carpenter in the site in the Ambattur area and he was living with his wife. 

With the plan, Sushanta had abducted Lockdown last Sunday when his parents and siblings were asleep and he put the child in a travel bag and handed it over to Balamurugan. With the child, Balamurugan had fled to Parangipettai in Cuddalore on the same day. Upon his arrival, Balamurugan had handed over the child to his former colleague Valarmathi (53), who lives in Parangipettai, and asked her to take care of the child for a few days. 

Balamurugan had claimed that the child was his son and that he will be back in some days and take him back with him. However, Valarmathi was suspicious about his claim and refused to keep the child. Balamurugan had then returned to Chennai with the child on Tuesday and left him on a bus at CMBT, Koyambedu. On the other hand, the parents had approached the police that their child went missing and based on their complaint, Ambattur police had filed a case and were probing the matter. 

After being informed that a child was leftover in a bus at Koyambedu, Ambattur police rushed to the spot on Tuesday night and secured the child. After investigation, they had handed over the child to his parents and launched a manhunt to nab the kidnappers. The officials had inspected the CCTV footage at the bus terminus and with the footage that convinced the officials that Balamurugan was the suspect, the police took him under custody on Wednesday night. 

Initially, he had denied the allegations and with adequate evidence, Balamurugan had eventually admitted that he had abducted the child with the help of Sushanth. Based on his confession, the police had arrested both of them and remanded them in judicial custody on Thursday. The police had also provided essentials for Lockdown's parents and Avadi Commissioner Sandeep Rai Rathore had commended the special team for recovering the child.