New Delhi, Mar 5 (PTI) A drug-addict vagabond was arrested from Shahdara's Vivek Vihar area here for allegedly abducting two minor girls to push them into begging, police said on Saturday.

The accused has been identified as Sanjay (40), a resident of Chhapra district in Bihar, they said.

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Police said the alertness of an e-rickshaw driver thwarted the kidnapping bid of the accused.

The Vivek Vihar Police Station got information about the incident at 10.30 am on Friday. Complainant Barhmdutt Rajput (20) told police that the accused along with the girls boarded his rickshaw from Balaji temple for Chintamani Chowk, a senior police officer said.

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The action of the accused was found to be suspicious by the complainant so he questioned him about the girls, but Sanjay could not give him a satisfactory answer, the officer said.

Rajput then approached traffic police personnel and narrated the incident to them, police said.

During interrogation, it was revealed that Sanjay had kidnapped the girls with the purpose to push them into begging, police said.

The girls are safe and have been handed over to their parents who work as labourers at construction sites, they said.

A case under section 363A (kidnapping or maiming a minor for purposes of begging) of the IPC has been registered at the Vivek Vihar Police Station and the accused has been arrested, police said.

Rajput showed exemplary courage and presence of mind. He will be rewarded suitably, they added.

(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)