MEERUT, May 27 -- A late-night police encounter in Bareilly district led to the rescue of a one-and-a-half-year-old boy who had been kidnapped from Manauna Shyam Temple in Aonla earlier this week, officials said on Wednesday. Two alleged members of an inter-district child trafficking gang were arrested after sustaining bullet injuries in retaliatory firing by police, they added.

Rishabh, the son of Raman, a sanitation worker employed at the temple, was allegedly kidnapped on Sunday afternoon from the temple premises, triggering a massive police search operation across multiple districts.

According to SP (South) Anshika Verma, investigators initially recovered CCTV footage showing two suspicious men near the temple around the time of the...