Hotel staff’s tip-off helps Odisha cops rescue abducted kid, rewarded

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Police today felicitated two good samaritans who helped the cops rescue an abducted minor girl in the state in December last year.

The police felicitated Kumuda Sethi, an employee of a hotel in Sundargarh, and Laxmeekant Mishra, a local resident of the western Odisha town, with cash rewards and citations for their good work.

According to police, two bike-borne miscreants had abducted the six-year-old granddaughter of a garment trader at Deogarh on December 18, 2023.

The miscreants took the girl to Sundargarh and tried to hire a room at Hotel Parvati Residency for night stay.

Sethi, who was at the reception counter of the hotel, sought proper identity proof from the duo before providing a room to them. The miscreants left the hotel after Sethi refused to provide them a room without proper identity proof, police said.

Sethi, who was aware of the abduction incident through television news, immediately informed about the two miscreants to police.

The police swung into action and intensified patrolling in Sundargarh town and its nearby areas. Fearing immediate arrest, the miscreants left the minor girl under a flyover in Sundargarh and fled the spot, cops said.

Mishra, a local resident, rescued the minor girl while she was crying under the flyover in the early morning of December 19.

On being informed by Mishra, the police in Sundargarh district contacted the minor girl’s family members and handed her over to them.