Baby rescued from kidnapper nurse in Puducherry

CHENNAI: Four days after she was kidnapped by a nurse, one-and-a-half year old Amsalakshmi was rescued by the Chennai police from Puducherry bus terminus on Saturday night. Thenmalar, the 25-year-old nurse, told the police that she took away the baby to blackmail Amsalakshmi’s father Kudiyarasu (34) into marrying her. Police arrested Thenmalar and a couple who had sheltered her in Perambur.

The baby, which went missing from her house in MGR Nagar on Wednesday, was found to be healthy and unharmed. On questioning, Thenmalar told police that she was having a relationship with Kudiyarasu for the last seven months and she wanted to get married to him though he was already married. Police had received information that Thenmalar and the child were in a house in Perambur on Friday, but minutes before a team reached the house, she slipped away with the child.

“Thenmalar’s friend Priya, a software engineer, and her partner Manikandan were hiding her in their house in Perambur. We have taken the couple also into custody. We traced Thenmalar to Puducherry, where she had gone to take the help of another friend. A police team with the photographs of the nurse and the child spotted them at the Puducherry bus terminus and brought them to Chennai,” T Nagar deputy commissioner of police G Sampath Kumar told TOI.

It has now turned out that Thenmalar had disappeared with the baby for two days three months ago, but the parents did not prefer a complaint then. Thenmalar, a resident of Ayanavaram, used to visit Kudiyarasu’s house and take care of Amsalakshmi when her mother Vani Sree (25), a call centre employee, would be away at work. According to Thenmalar, she has been having an affair with Kudiyarasu, a supervisor with the electrical department of HCL, where she was working with a medical team. She said she was initially not aware that Kudiyarasu was married and fell in love with him. She claimed that he agreed to take her as his second wife after she took away the baby three months ago, but he did not keep his word.

On Wednesday, when Kudiyarasu and his wife were away, Thenmalar who was to take care of Amsalakshmi, disappeared with the baby on her two-wheeler. Inquiries revealed that Thenmalar, a native of Kancheepuram, came to Ayanavaram a few years ago and stayed in a working women’s hostel. She got a job in a private hospital, where she met Manikandan when he was taking care of his ailing father, and later his girlfriend Priya, who was working with HCL. Thenmalar got a job in HCL through Priya and there she met Kudiyarasu.

Thenmalar, Priya and Manikandan were remanded in judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate court on Sunday.