Kidnappers get away with Ep 28m
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Just a week after the police arrested a woman suspected of being a member of a kidnapping syndicate operating in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, a similar case took place in Depok, south of Jakarta.
Two students of SMP Cakra Buana private junior high school -- identified as Michael, 14, and Fajar, 14 -- were abducted when walking home from school on Monday.
Depok Police chief Sr. Comr. Raja Erizman said on Wednesday that the syndicate had demanded Rp 15 million (US$1,648) ransom for each boy from the parents. The parents immediately transferred the money to the appointed bank account. However, Raja did not disclose the bank or the name of the account holder.
The parents also contacted the police for help.
Detectives from Depok Police immediately launched a hunt for the kidnappers and patrolled several places until they received a tipoff that the kidnappers had moved to a house in Bintaro, Tangerang. When they searched the house, they did not find the children.
Michael and Fajar were dropped off at Depok Mall on Tuesday afternoon after the kidnappers received the ransom. The boys immediately rushed home.
"We are still hunting down the kidnappers. We have yet to get any information from the victims. We haven't questioned them since they are still traumatized," Raja said.
The Depok case was the third reported kidnapping case in Greater Jakarta this week.
Spokesman of the Jakarta Police, which oversees the neighboring cities of Tangerang, Bekasi and Depok, Sr. Comr. Tjiptono warned parents to remind their children not to speak to strangers.
"Looking at the recent modus operandi, it is important for the police to remind parents to keep telling their children not to trust strangers," he said.
In the case of Michael and Fajar, they were approached by several unidentified men, who said that they were sent by the boys' parents to bring them home. The boys then agreed to get into the kidnappers' car.
Tjiptono also said that the syndicate was likely targeting schools for families from the middle and high-income bracket.
"Based on the preliminary investigation, we conclude that the kidnappers have been targeting children from well-off families," he said.
The previous case took place on Oct. 25 in Kelapa Gading when Johanes, 13, and Nicholas, 13, both students of SMP Jubilee private junior high school, were abducted after school by unidentified men at two separate locations.
The kidnappers demanded the boys' parents each pay Rp 20 million in ransom. Soon after they received the money, the boys were returned safely to their parents.
One of the alleged syndicate members, Lydia, 40, was arrested when collecting the ransom money through an automated teller machine (ATM) of Bank Central Asia in Taman Sari, West Jakarta.
A Don Bosco junior high school student in Pulomas, East Jakarta, was also kidnapped in late September. The parents sent Rp 20 million in ransom and the boy was returned to them unharmed.
Police did not say whether they had concluded that all the kidnapping cases were committed by the same syndicate.