Two men who kidnapped a seven-year-old boy on his doorstep after distracting his mother have been captured by enraged locals and beaten in the street, Dailymail has reported.

The two alleged kidnappers identified as Sunny Devnani, 27, and Sudhir Sayaram, 30, from Madhya Pradesh in central India were subjected to mob justice after being caught on camera snatching young Dev Padalia as he waited for the school bus.


The incident happened after the mother of the victim made a plea on WhatsApp which went viral begging for people to help her rescue her son. The two men were later caught by furious locals who tied them to a pole and delivered their own sentence before passing them on to police.

Dev's mum, 32-year-old Kiran Padalia, had been asked by one of the men if her brother-in-law was in the house on Monday. She put Dev down by his nine-year-old sister when she went inside to pass on the message from the seemingly innocuous caller.

But as soon as she was out of view, sick Devnani grabbed Dev and jumped onto a waiting bike driven by Sayaram. The two then fled the scene with Dev as the family desperately gave chase.

But thanks to a CCTV camera at the home in Gujarat, mum Kiran was able to ask for help over WhatsApp using the footage. Her message quickly went viral.

She also attached images of the men, whom she knew. Within six hours, the kidnappers had been caught by locals.

But before handing them to the police, they tied the villains to an iron pole and beat them in the street. Chandu Babbaria, from Morbi Police Station, said: 'We started searching for the boy as soon as we got the information about the incident.

'A shop owner in Wankaner village market recognized the man and boy from the picture that went viral on WhatsApp. 'He alerted us and we caught the kidnappers with the help of other villagers. 'Both the men on the bike have been arrested; however, they claim another gang were also involved in the case.

'All of them are currently on the run and the search is on to find them and question them. The arrested men have confessed they kidnapped the child to extract money from the business class family.

'We have imposed sections 365 (kidnapping), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

'The boy has been saved and handed back to the family. He is getting all the support he needs.'