Kamal Ghorui
LUCKNOW: Gold buys food. In eastern Uttar Pradesj, food brought gold. For a 12-year-old schoolboy, an offer of unlimited free momos was worth more than the metal locked in a family cupboard. For two roadside vendors, the boy’s craving turned into a gold mine.Police said the class 7 student handed over jewellery worth Rs 85 lakh from his family home to momo sellers near Dumari Chauraha in Deoria — about 350km east of Lucknow — trading ornaments for what he was promised would be a lifetime supply of free dumplings. The trail surfaced when jewellery vanished from the cupboard. The boy’s mother and aunt went looking. The cupboard was empty. Questions followed. The child broke down and told his father he had traded the valuables for “unlimited free food for a lifetime”.According to a complaint filed by the boy’s father, a temple priest, the child had grown fond of momo sold at the roadside stall.The vendors allegedly began feeding him free of cost, winning trust bite by bite. Soon came bigger offers — food, small sums of money, loyalty. Then persuasion. Unaware of the stakes, the boy began removing jewellery from home and handing it over, police said.Gold necklaces. Rings. Bangles. Mangtika. Nose pins. Earrings. Silver toe rings. Family heirlooms, one snack at a time. The vendors vanished soon enough.The priest approached police on Feb 1, alleging the momo sellers threatened the child with dire consequences to keep him silent. Police teams are now searching for the two fugitives and tracing the jewellery trail, SHO Devendra Kumar Singh said, adding legal action will follow. Other suspects are also being questioned.
