Tirupati: A three-month-old infant was separated from his parents and abducted at the sacred abode of Lord Venkateswara in Tirumala on Sunday. The incident reportedly happened near the SV Shopping Complex at Tirumala at about 5.30 am on Sunday morning.According to Tirumala police, the three-month-old baby boy, named Veera, was reported missing in the early hours of Sunday by his parents Maa Veeran and Kousalya, who hail from Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu. The infant’s parents have been working as hawkers at Tirumala for the last three years now.Tirumala cops registered a complaint and began investigation immediately. They analysed CCTV footage around SV Complex and the adjoining areas around Tirumala and zeroed in on a suspect, an unidentified female aged between 20-25 years, who was was seen walking away with the three-month old infant.Though the Tirumala police sounded an alert immediately and intensified vehicular checks both at GNC tollgate as well as at Alipiri — the exit point at Tirupati — the boy remained untraceable. Tirumala police have released images of the suspect female and sounded an alert in neighbouring districts as well.It may be recalled that only a few months back in December 2018 a one-and-a-half-year-old boy from Maharashtra was abducted in similar fashion from Tirumala but was fortunately retrieved and handed over to his parents within a few days.However, the back-to-back abductions of infants at Tirumala have time and again exposed chinks in the existing security setup that has failed to prevent abductions. Though the Tirumala police have access to the best technology, including a sophisticated CCTV camera network and sufficient number of CCTVs, the abductions of infants show that the Tirumala police have not done enough to prevent the recurrence of such incidents in the future, lamented devotees on a visit to Tirumala.

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