5-year-old kidnapped girl rescued within 12 hours in Thane; 4 women arrested

Police rescue 5-year-old girl from Thane within 12 hours of kidnapping; 4 women arrested for planning to sell her for ₹1 lakh.

MUMBAI: Within 12 hours of being kidnapped, the police rescued a five-year-old girl from Thane and arrested four women, including two of the victim’s neighbours in Bhandup, for planning to sell the girl for ₹1 lakh. The accused were planning to take the girl to Rajasthan on Monday but the police nabbed them before they could flee and rescued the girl around 8.00am on Monday.

The family searched for the girl when she did not come home and approached police around 11:45 pm on Sunday. (Representational image)

The arrested accused are identified as Khusubu Ramashish Gupta, 19, Maina Rajaram Dilor, 39, Divya Kailash Singh, 33, and Payal Hemant Shah, 32. Police said, Gupta and Dilor both live in Bhandup area near the residence of the girl, whereas Singh and Shah live in Balkum area of Thane.

During the investigation, the police learnt that Singh and Shah knew Dilor for a long time and they had discussed earlier with them that they wanted to adopt a girl and were ready to pay ₹1 lakh for a girl child, said a police officer. Dilor then discussed it with Gupta and they decided to identify the girl. added official.

According to the police, the girl’s father works as a daily wager and she as a housemaid in Bhandup. Their five-year-old daughter is studying in senior KG. The incident occurred on Sunday around 9:30pm when Gupta, who lives in the same vicinity as the child, saw the girl near her house. She spoke to Maina on the phone and decided to kidnap the girl. Maina also knew the child, and both then called her on the pretext of giving her chocolate and made her sit in an auto, said police sub-inspector Abhijit Tekawade of the Bhandup police station who was part of the probe.

After kidnapping the girl, Gupta and Maina informed Singh and Shah about her and decided to meet them in Kapurbawadi in Thane where the girl was handed over to them. Singh and Shah both gave ₹9,000 to the alleged kidnappers and rest of the money was promised to be paid on Monday. Singh brought the girl and kept her in her flat in Balkum in Thane, said senior inspector Dattatray Khandagle of the Bhandup police station.

The family searched for the girl when she did not come home and approached police around 11:45pm on Sunday. During the investigation, police learnt that the girl was last spotted with Gupta and therefore police nabbed her during interrogation, and she confessed the crime.

Tekawade and his team immediately visited the flat in Balkum and rescued the girl on Monday morning.

Singh is a native of Rajasthan and she was planning to take the girl there, but the police reached her residence and nabbed her. All the accused are booked under sections 363 (kidnapping) and 370 (human trafficking) of the Indian Penal Code, added the officer.