Another incident of an attempt to kidnap near a private school in Chennai has surfaced.
A 10-year-old was allegedly cornered near the school gate by a man posing as an auto driver. Madhu Nair's daughter who is a class 5 student of PSBB, KK Nagar, however escaped from what could have been a kidnap attempt due to her sheer presence of mind.
“He told my child that her father had asked him to pick her up. My kid found it unusual as we live only 100 metres away from the school and no one usually picks her up,” Madhu Nair said. The child was terrified and found a friend leaving from the school gate with whom she ran home. “She came back home shivering in fright,” Madhu said.
“The man he had orangish colored hair, maybe he had applied henna. My daughter could not recall anything more,” Madhu added.
The parent had immediately informed the principal and was reassured by the management that there was nothing to worry about. Apart from police deployment near the gates of the school and an informal enquiry, no action has been taken. According to the parent, a formal police complaint has not yet been registered.
This was however not the first such incident being reported. Parents, who send their children to PSBB School at KK Nagar in Chennai were horrified after receiving a WhatsApp message of an “attempt to kidnap” a student.
The message, whose sender was anonymous, stated that her “daughter escaped by God’s grace from being kidnapped by a stranger”.
Near the entrance of the school, an unknown person dressed like an auto driver had called the parent saying, "your mom is calling, you come with me." However, the WhatsApp forward noted that it was the child’s presence of mind helped her escape.
Madhu told The News Minute that the anonymous message was not about his daughter.
School authorities have neither confirmed nor denied the incidents. The KK Nagar police had called a meeting with school officials on precautionary measures to be taken and had also deployed a patrolman, two women constables, a traffic constable and a beat patrolman near the school.
Speaking to The News Minute, Sheela Rajendran, Deputy Dean and Director of PSBB School said, “We have checked the messages and there is nothing like that for parents to be alarmed. The forwarded message is creating unnecessary panic."