Kochi: Angamaly police arrested a migrant labourer from West Bengal on charges of kidnapping a minor girl. The accused, 22-year-old Sabuji, a native of West Bengal, was apprehended in Jalangi, Murshidabad, on Friday, five days after the incident. The Ernakulam rural police transported him to Kochi, where a court remanded him to judicial custody on Saturday.

The case was registered when a couple from Uttar Pradesh living in Angamaly reported their daughter missing. Following the complaint, Ernakulam District Police Chief Vaibhav Saxena formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT). The team found out that the accused travelled with the girl by bus to Bengaluru and, from there, boarded a flight to Kolkata.

The SIT later traced Sabuji's Aadhaar card and travelled to Jalangi, a remote village near the Bangladesh border, where they found the girl at Sabuji's home. With assistance from local police, officers detained both the suspect and the minor girl and brought them back to Kerala.

"The accused was staying next to the girl's house and kidnapped her while her parents were at work. He has been slapped with charges under POCSO act, kidnapping and stalking," Sub-Inspector Pradeep Kumar told Onmanorama.

The investigation team included Sub-Inspector Pradeep Kumar and Senior Civil Police Officers Ajith Kumar, Sreeja, and Jayasree.