A school in Bengaluru has sent a notice to parents of all its students after unidentified men in a school-van came to pick a student up, pretending to have been sent by the school. The possible attempt at kidnapping was reportedly averted due to an alert parent.
According to a report in The Times of India, a woman put up a post on Facebook on Monday stating that a school van claiming to be from Sri Kumaran Children's Home in Uttarahalli came to pick up her friend's son for school that morning. The people in the van, including the driver and support staff, said that the regular bus had broken down and so the school had sent them as an alternative.
However, when the father of the boy who studies in Class 1 called the school's transport manager to confirm, he was told that no such arrangement had been made by the school.
By the time they could inform the police, the men in the van fled.
The TOI report states that “the post ended with a warning for all parents that a new group is finding ways to kidnap children,” following which several parents expressed their concern.
The school has issued a notice to its parents alerting them against letting their children go with anyone who claims to have come from the school without proper verification.
"The school will never use any private van services. In case of a bus break down, the school buses which are on stand-by are pressed into service," the school said in the statement.
"We don't know if the said incident really took place or not, but we have sent the notice just to our parents to be on the safer side," an official from the school told The News Minute.