The Government Railway Police (GRP) recovered 10-year-old Kapil from the Kanpur Central Railway station on Sunday morning. The boy had been kidnapped from outside Bal Vikas Vidyalaya, Kalyanpuri police station, on Saturday afternoon.

The team also arrested one of the kidnappers, identified as Devendra. A country-made pistol of .315 bore, two live cartridges, sedatives and a rope were recovered from his possession. On information given by GRP Kanpur, Delhi Police later arrested the other kidnappers — Jantri and Mukim.

A Class III student of Bal Vikas Vidyalaya, Kapil had gone missing after his school got over on Saturday afternoon. His father, Shyam Veer, runs a dairy and has rickshaw business.

On Saturday night, the kidnappers called him up and demanded Rs 5 lakh as ransom. Following a complaint by Shyam, a case of kidnapping was registered with the Kalyanpuri police station, New Delhi. The GRP team spotted the minor in a general compartment of the Bihar Samparak Kranti Express.

GRP Inspector Tripurari Pandey said, “I found something suspicious as he was wearing a school dress.”

The team immediately caught hold of Devendra and brought him and the minor to the GRP station. “Soon Devendra admitted that he had kidnapped Kapil and was taking him to Bihar,” said Pandey.

Kapil was returned to his father and Devendra handed over to the Delhi Police.

Shyam Veer said: “For the last two years, Jantri, Devendra and Mukim have been working as rickshaw-pullers in my rickshaw business. I had never expected that these three, who have been extremely loyal to me, could carry out the kidnapping of my son. Around 9 pm on Saturday, I got the ransom call and the issue was immediately brought to the knowledge of Kalyanpuri police.”