A 12-year-old boy has managed to escape three hours after he was allegedly kidnapped from near his house on Monday by jumping off a running train at Shimurali railway station in Nadia.

The Class VI student of Kendriya Vidyalaya approached a hawker at Shimurali station who helped him call up his father from a cellphone.

The hawker later handed over Palash Kumar Choudhury to his father Navin Choudhury, a fitter at Kanchrapara Railway workshop, at night. Choudhury on Tuesday lodged a complaint at Bijpur police station against unidentified kidnappers.

The police are, however, yet to start a case.

“We will question the boy first before starting a probe. We could not question the boy as he was admitted to hospital,” said an officer of Bijpur police station.

Family sources said the boy had to be admitted to Kanchrapara Railway hospital on Monday night as he had suffered minor injuries to the legs while jumping off the Santipur-bound train.

“My son could not identify the kidnappers. We have no idea who were behind the kidnapping. No one made any ransom call also,” the boy’s father, Navin Choudhury said.

Palash told his parents that about 4pm on Monday, two men riding a motorcycle had kidnapped him while he was going to visit a doctor with his elder brother Pritam.

“My son said two men grabbed him about 50m from our residence. My elder son Pritam was walking a little ahead of him. The kidnappers put a piece of cloth with some drug on it on his nose to make him unconscious. He regained consciousness later in a running train when he found himself on the floor close to the door. He was covered by four persons. Nevertheless, he suddenly jumped out of the train when it started rolling out of Shimurali station where some hawkers helped him contact me,” the boy’s father said.

Palash said from his hospital that the two men on the motorcycle had told him that his father had asked him to return home.

“I suspected something wrong and tried to run away. But one of them grabbed my shirt and the other pressed a handkerchief on my nose and I started feeling drowsy. I could only recall that they put me on a motorcycle and later in a car. I woke up in a local train on the floor of a compartment and close to the door. A strong whistle of a passing train woke me up. I decided to jump off the train.”

Railway hawker Suman Biswas who helped Palash said: “I was shocked to see the boy fall from the running train. But he appeared to be very brave. I took him to a shop and he told me that he had escaped from kidnappers. So, I gave him my phone from which he called up his

father.”