A teenaged netizen, for whom online chatting with women had become an obsession, was arrested by the Mumbai police for kidnapping a three-year-old child from suburban Kurla to raise money for paying Internet bills and giving gifts to chat partners.
Nineteen-year-old Mohseen alias Sheru was nabbed by the police on Wednesday night when he called up the toddler's family at Vinoba Bhave Nagar in Kurla and demanded Rs 35,000 to release three-year-old Zain.
Mohseen was produced in court and remanded to police custody till June 28, the police said.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Police Ashutosh Dumbare, Mohseen was a native of Akbarpur in Uttar Pradesh where he completed the Secondary School Certificate examination before shifting to Mumbai along with his family.
However, after completing the Higher School Certificate examination, Mohseen's interest in studies faded and he dropped out of undergraduate studies, Dumbare said.
Mohseen then began chatting on the Internet and spent long hours chatting with women. "He was so obsessed with chatting on the Internet that he started stealing valuables from home to meet his needs and his habit of stealing eventually forced his family to throw him out of the house," Dumbare further stated.
Despite being disowned by family members, Mohseen could not get rid of the chatting obsession and worked as a caretaker of an Internet cafe in Kurla that allowed him endless hours of chatting, the police officer said.
Police believe the greed to procure money for chatting and to give gifts to chat partners prompted Mohseen to abduct Zain and extort money.
