SRINAGAR: An 11-year-old US citizen who had allegedly been abducted by his caretakers in Punjab was traced and recovered from south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Monday, newspaper Hindustan Times reported, quoting police sources. The boy, originally in the care of a Jalandhar-based couple, had gone missing on May 12. Acting on a missing person complaint filed by the US Embassy and the victim’s family, Punjab Police launched an investigation that ultimately led them to Jammu and Kashmir.
Superintendent of Police (SP) Prabhjot Singh Virk said that the couple — Shaminder Kaur and her husband Ajitpal Singh — were arrested in Kulgam with the help of local police. “The couple, who were employed as caretakers by the boy’s father, went incommunicado in May, sparking alarm,” Virk said.
According to the SP, the boy had been brought to India by his father when he was around 18 months old. After separating from his wife in the United States, the father won custody of the child and moved to India, where he left the boy in the care of the couple. The father, now residing in Poland after being deported from the US, had hired the couple to look after the boy, as the child’s maternal grandmother, who lives in Begowal, was too old to do so.
“The couple stopped all communication from May 12 onwards. Based on digital footprints and human intelligence, we traced their movement to Kashmir and recovered the child in Kulgam,” Virk said, as quoted in a report by Hindustan Times. He added that the motive behind the alleged abduction remains unclear and is under investigation.
The police have registered a case under Section 140 (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). “We have informed the US Embassy about the child’s recovery so that the process of handing him over to his custodians can be completed,” the SP added.
The case has drawn international attention, given the child’s US citizenship and the involvement of diplomatic channels in the investigation and recovery.
