Ghaziabad (UP), Aug 27 (PTI) The Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force (STF) arrested the prime accused in a child kidnapping case after a seven-year hunt in Uttarakhand's Haridwar town, police said on Friday.

The STF arrested the accused, Balister, who was carrying a reward of Rs 25,000 on his head. He was the prime accused in a case of kidnapping of a six-year-old child and demanding ransom from his parents.

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Balister's four accomplices were arrested but he remained absconding all these years, Circle Officer of Indirapuram Abhay Kumar Mishra said, adding that the Ghaziabad SSP had declared a reward for his whereabouts.

On May 24, 2014, the six-year-old son of Madanlal, a resident of Lok Priya Vihar in Khoda police station area, was abducted and the kidnappers had demanded ransom to release him. On the basis of phone call details, police had rescued the child from their clutches and arrested Meghraj, Sanjiv, Arvind and Satyavir as they were named in the FIR along with the mastermind Balister.

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The police, though, could not arrest Balister and a reward of Rs 25,000 was declared in 2018 for his arrest by the then SSP of Ghaziabad. The STF team took suo-motu cognisance of the case and arrested the main kidnapper from Raniganj area of Haridwar in neighbouring Uttarakhand.

The accused was selling snacks on a pushcart by the roadside with a false identity as Golu.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)