E-Paper
Mohali: Woman kidnaps 7-yr-old son in custody of ex-husband, arrested
Boy rescued from Ludhiana within 48 hrs; was brought to a Mohali mall to meet his mother when she took him away, alleges father
Police have arrested a woman for kidnapping her seven-year-old son who has been in the legal custody of her ex-husband since their separation in 2018.
Police said the child, Gurdit, was kidnapped from Bestech Mall, Sector 66, Mohali, on January 29 when his father, Jasneet Singh, had brought him to meet his mother, Raspreet Kaur, as permitted by court.
The child was traced to Ludhiana and rescued within 48 hours.
Raspreet, a native of Jagadhri, Haryana, and her two accomplices, Sukhwinder Singh and Manoj Pandey of Ludhiana, were arrested over the past week following further probe, said police. Their three more accomplices are at large.
Woman was allowed to meet son once a month
Jasneet, a civil engineer, hailing from Faridabad, Haryana, had told the police that after their separation in 2018, the court had awarded their son’s custody to him and they had been living in Zirakpur. The court had allowed his wife to meet their son once a month and have video calls once a week.
Accordingly, he took Gurdit to the mall to meet Raspreet around 12 pm on January 29. While exiting the mall in his car around 3 pm, a man stopped him to ask for an address and forcibly took out his car’s key.
Another man appeared and broke his spectacles, while a third man threw chilli powder in his eyes. The men then beat him up with baseball bats, snatched his mobile phone and kidnapped his son, before driving off in a Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire parked nearby, Jasneet had alleged.
He eventually learnt that his ex-wife’s brother-in-law was driving the Dzire, following which he approached the police.
A senior police officer said, “The woman conspired with her relatives and thus she was arrested in the case. We are raiding the possible hideouts of the absconding accused, who will be nabbed soon.”
The accused have been booked under Sections 365 (kidnapping), 379-B (snatching after preparation made for causing death, hurt or restraint in order to the committing of snatching), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code at Phase-11 police station.
