SURAT: A two-and-a-half-year-old boy was abducted by seven persons, who stuffed him in a sack and flung him into Mindhola river near Bardoli and escaped after being chased on Monday.The abductors, who came in a rickshaw, waylaid the boy Neev's father Nishit Patel's car on the outskirts of Vanessa village of Palsana taluka at around 9am.They brandished a pistol and knives and took away the boy in the rickshaw. Patel told police that he chased them for nearly 25 km but the abductors threw the body in the river and fled. He was going to drop Neev at the school.Patel, 35, is a rich farmer living in Vanessa. A hectic search operation has been launched to locate the boy.Patel told Palsana police that the seven persons waylaid his car near a minor canal on the outskirts of the village towards Jetpur road.Two of them brandished a pistol-like weapon while three of them took out knives and pulled Neev out of the car.The kidnappers pulled out Neev out of the car, stuffed him in a sack and started fleeing in the rickshaw. Patel claimed that they also took away his purse, cell phone and other items, but threw all these back at him before escaping.Patel said that when he saw their rickshaw on Mindhola bridge near Bardoli, he called some relatives. However, the abductors threw the sack in the gushing waters below. He even tried to locate the boy on the riverbank.“We have launched a massive search operation to locate the boy. There are number of small rivers and canals that meet Mindhola upto Lajpore in Navsari district but we have not found him,” said an officer of Palsana police station.Investigators are, however, finding something amiss in the case. “It is quite unbelievable that the car was not able to chase down a rickshaw in the run up to 15 km. We are probing various angles,” the official said.They are also investigating if Patel had enmity with someone or there was was internal family feud that could have led to the crime.

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