2-month-old baby girl kidnapped in Mumbai, rescued; couple arrested

During scanning of the CCTV footage, police got a lead in which the accused was seen holding the baby girl in his arms

Mumbai police on Thursday arrested a Wadala-based couple for allegedly kidnapping a 71-day-old baby girl from a pavement near St Xavier’s College in order to sell the infant to a childless couple.

Parents holding the baby girl along with senior police officials. (HT Photo)

Police rescued the baby and handed her to the parents.

The arrested accused were identified as Mohammad Hanif Memon (46) and wife, Afreen Memon (39), residents of Shanti Nagar area in Wadala East.

According to police, on the night of October 25, when the couple was sleeping with their three daughters, an unknown person had reportedly taken away the youngest daughter.

When their mother woke up, she found the youngest daughter missing. She searched the whole neighbourhood but to no avail.

The next morning on Wednesday, the woman approached the Azad Maidan police and reported the incident.

“We recorded statement of the complainant woman and immediately registered a kidnapping against an unknown person and formed eight police teams to search the baby girl in entire south region. Two police teams were checking footages of CCTV cameras installed in the vicinity of the place of occurrence and railway stations,” said police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar.

“During scanning of the CCTV footage, police got a lead in which the accused was seen holding the baby girl in his arms. The teams followed the man in CCTV footages and later spotted him in the footages of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station,” said the police chief.

“His wife was not with him at the time of kidnapping the girl. The accused was seen boarding a train at CSMT and found to be getting off at Wadala railway station,” he added.

The police then alerted their sources in Antop Hill, Wadala and other neighbouring areas and also scanned footages of the CCTV installed in the localities. Police got the address of the accused and raided the place in Wadala East where they found the baby girl and arrested the couple for allegedly kidnapping the child, Phansalkar added.

The arrested couple has two children, a 13-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl. The rescued baby girl was handed over to her mother on Thursday.

Police suspect the couple had kidnapped the child with an intention to sell her.