The Cyberabad police cracked the kidnap case of four-year-old Nagesh, who went missing from Attapur a fortnight ago, by nabbing an auto driver who was trying to sell the child for Rs 1 lakh.

The Rajendranagar police said that they arrested Sunkara Gangaiah (29) from Guntakal in Andhra Pradesh’s Ananatapur district.

According to the police, the accused was a ’quack’, selling roadside medicine, along with some ayurvedic medicines, after erecting small tents by the road.

PV Padmaja, DCP, Shamshabad, said, "Since his income was very meagre, he decided to earn money by selling children, and was waiting for an opportunity to kidnap them."

In September, Gangaiah saw an unattended boy, Nagesh, playing near his house.

After offering him chocolates, the accused took the boy to Guntakal from Lingampally railway station in Hyderabad.

After seeing that their child was missing, the parents approached the local police, who then circulated the boy’s photos across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

"On getting a tip off from the Guntakal police that Gangaiah was making a deal to sell the boy for Rs 1 lakh, the Rajendra Nagar police rescued the boy and arrested the accused,” the DCP added.

The DCP also handed over the boy to parents on Friday. The parents were daily wagers hailing from Bidar in Karnataka.

Based on a complaint from the boys's father, police have registered a kidnap case against the accused and sent him to judicial custody for 14 days.