Police still hunting suspect in schoolgirl kidnapping

JAKARTA (JP): Police are still hunting for one of three suspects in the kidnapping of a school girl on July 26. The girl is a daughter of a secretary at the North Jakarta District Court.

A police detective at the North Jakarta police precinct confirmed that two off the suspected kidnappers, identified only as As, 34, and Gn, 25, have been arrested.

"The other, identified as An, is still at large," the detective, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.

According to the detective, the men kidnapped 9-year-old Ridha Firli Tendri just as she was leaving her school in Manggarai, South Jakarta.

While the alleged kidnappers moved Ridha around the city, another person called her mother, demanding Rp 20 million (US$8,510) in ransom money.

The kidnapper who telephoned Ridha's mother, Nursiah Ibrahim, at her office, said the money should be transferred to a bank account at Bank International Indonesia's branch in East Jakarta.

After receiving the call, Nursiah reported the kidnapping to the North Jakarta police.

As suggested by the police, Nursiah fulfilled the kidnappers' demand by transferring the money to the account.

The kidnappers released her daughter that evening in front of the bank.

On July 30, the police received a report from an employee of bank's Depok branch, saying that a man was going to make a withdrawal from an account which matched the number given by Nursiah.

The police went to the bank and apprehended As.

The other men, who were waiting in a car in the parking lot, escaped.

Gn was arrested early in the morning on July 31 in his car in Bandung, West Java.

According to the police, the other man, An, who is believed to be the mastermind of the kidnapping, is a relative of Nursiah.

Meanwhile, another child kidnapping reported in South Jakarta turned out to be the result of a dispute between a divorced couple.

Six-year-old Jesslyn Araminta, also known as Intan, who had earlier been reported to have been kidnapped by her father's housemaid, was found safe and sound at her mother's house on Jl. Tendean in South Jakarta.

Intan's father I. Nyoman Budayasa told Kompas on Saturday his daughter had left his house on Jl. Ngurah Rai Tabanan, Bali, on Friday. He said he suspected that the girl had been kidnapped by his housemaid Kasanah, who hails from Nganjuk, East Java.

But on Friday Ruhut Sitompul, the lawyer of Intan's mother, Titik Nurhayati, confirmed that the girl was now staying with Titik, who is divorced from Budayasa.

Ruhut said when the couple divorced, the court had decided that the children, Carisssa Kumala Dewi, 8, and Intan would be in the custody of their mother instead of their father.

Budayasa refused to obey the court's decision, prohibiting his daughters from living with their mother, Ruhut said. (jun/bas)