Overview
- Following Sunday's highway pile-up near Bareilly, police reported five dead and five injured, including two children later identified as kidnap victims from Gurugram.
- The injured Bolero driver, identified as Prince, told investigators the children and their father, Manoj, had been abducted, which shifted the case from a traffic crash to a kidnapping probe.
- Acting on the driver's account and a six-year-old's statement at the hospital, Uttar Pradesh police traced and rescued Manoj from a house in Faridpur linked to an accused.
- Officers said the abduction followed Manoj's objection to accused Manmohan's plan to marry his minor adopted daughter, and Manmohan was among the three suspects who died in the crash.
- The children, ages six and three, are stable with fractures in hospital, and Haryana Police have been notified to lead the next phase of the investigation after the rescue and one arrest in Faridpur.