MAPUSA: A quick-thinking five-year-old girl managed to escape the clutches of a kidnapper who tried to abduct her from within her school premises, by remembering the training her parents had given her, and asking for a ‘family passcode’.
The attempt came to light on Friday after the parents of the child, studying in a reputed school in Mapusa lodged a complaint with the Mapusa police stating that an unidentified woman in a burkha tried to kidnap their daughter.
However, since the school did not have a working CCTV camera at the entrance, the incident was not recorded, complained the child’s father. “There were no security personnel at the school gate either,” he said.
The parents said they dropped their daughter off at the school at around 2.20 pm, for her violin class that begins at 2.30 pm. While she was waiting for the previous session to finish, she was approached by a woman in a burkha, who spoke to her in Hindi. “The woman told her that I (her father) had met with an accident, and that she had come to pick her up,” the girl’s father told Herald.
The child, in response, asked her for a family passcode. This confused the woman, and the child used this time to rush into the class, to her violin teacher. The parents of another student informed her parents about the incident, and they rushed to pick her up.
The child had been trained by her parents not to talk to strangers, or trust them. “We have trained both our children to never trust strangers. Even in cases of emergencies, they know that they will only be picked up by their parents, their Godfather, or a known neighbour or relative and never a stranger,” said the father.
The child is being lauded for her presence of mind in asking for a family code, when in reality, there is no such code. “She was very quick to realise that the lady was a kidnapper, as nobody in our social or family circles speaks in Hindi, and no one she knows wears a burkha either,” said the father.
A Mapusa police team headed by PI Paresh Naik visited the school and inspected the site.
When questioned about the incident, Mapusa MLA Joshua D’Souza said, “I have already spoken to the Chief Minister and the DySP about the matter, and assured that the law enforcement will investigate the case and find out what exactly is happening with these kidnapping attempts, and the modus operandi.”
“We have also made a request to have a system similar to what they have in Panjim, where all major points of the city are under surveillance. It may take time, but we are in the process of bringing this to Mapusa as well,” he said.
Responding to a question on the law and order situation in the town, The MLA responded, “We cannot call it a collapse of law and order because of a couple of incidents. We as Goans have to be more aware of our surroundings and vigilant of what is happening.”
