3-month-old reunited with mom after being kidnapped by childless couple

The police said the accused were desperate to have a child as they did not have one of their own even after eight years of their marriage

THANE: A childless couple from Akola has been arrested eight days after they kidnapped a three-month-old infant from Mumbra. The police said the baby girl was reunited with her parents on Thursday.

Thane, India - January -30, 2026: The three-month-old baby girl who was abducted from Mumbra has been safely traced by the police and handed over to her mother. On the evening of the 22nd, an unidentified woman abducted the three-month-old baby girl from Mumbra. After intensive efforts, the police traced the child from Akole in Maharashtra. The accused woman was arrested, and the baby was rescued safely and reunited with her mother. In this case, the police have arrested two accused. ,in Thane ,in Mumbai, India, on, Friday, January -30, 2026. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo)

According to the police, the accused couple, Khairunnisha Gulab, 30, and Mohammad Mujeeb Gulab, 31, are residents of Khetari village in Akola district. The police said they were desperate to have a child as they did not have one of their own even after eight years of their marriage.

The police said that on January 22, the mother of the kidnapped infant, Farzana Mohammad Mansuri, 23, was crossing Khadi Machine Road while carrying her daughters, three-month- old Aafiya and three-year-old Anabiya. As Mansuri struggled to cross the road while her elder daughter was crying, a burqa-clad woman offered to help her by carrying the infant. The woman, however, fled the spot taking the three-month-old girl with her.

Following Mansuri’s complaint, the Mumbra police registered a complaint and launched an investigation. The police formed four teams and screened footage from over 1,600 CCTV cameras installed across Mumbra, as well as railway stations stretching from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) to Vangani on the Central Railway line.

Upon reviewing the footage again, the police noticed another burqa-clad woman accompanied by a man carrying an infant wearing pink socks. The baby’s head and legs were visible in the footage of a camera at platform No.2 of the Mumbra railway station. The footage showed that soon afterwards another burqa-clad woman joined them and then departed. The couple eventually boarded a train but could not be found either at the railway station in Thane, Vidhyavihar, or Kurla and the police suspected that they had changed their clothes. towards CSMT.

The investigation then focused on tracking down the woman who had met the couple briefly at the Mumbra station. CCTV footage tracked her to a road in Insha Nagar, a highly populated residential area. The police then took the help of local informants, and identified her as Nasrin Ikhlaq Sheikh.

When questioned, Sheikh revealed that the woman who allegedly fled with the child was her younger sister and that the infant had been taken to their house in Akola. A team from the Mumbra police, with assistance from the local police in Akola, then traced the accused couple and successfully rescued the infant, who was later reunited with her mother on Thursday.

Nasrin told the police that her sister had called her to the railway station saying, “station pe aa, main tumhein surprise dikhane wali hoon” (Come to the station, I have a surprise for you). When Nasrin reached there, the accused woman showed her the abducted baby before leaving for their hometown in Akola, she told the police.

Assistant police inspector Tejas Sawant said, “The accused woman was harassed by her family for not bearing a child despite eight to nine years of marriage. She was desperate to have a baby and had visited Mumbra to look for someone willing to give up a child. When she saw the victim struggling with two children, she seized the opportunity. The couple reached Thane station and left for Akola after boarding an Amravati bound train.”

Thane police commissioner Ashutosh Dumbre said the couple had visited Mumbra on two earlier occasions to search for a baby to adopt but had failed to find one. “On this occasion, the accused woman took advantage of the victim’s vulnerability and fled with the infant,” said Dumbre.

The accused have been arrested and booked under Section 137(2) (kidnapping) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.