Duo arrested for kidnapping, selling baby for ₹1.5 lakh

Three men were arrested by the Government Railway Police in Mumbai for kidnapping a two-month-old boy and selling him to another individual for ₹1.5 lakh. The boy was rescued and reunited with his mother.

MUMBAI: The Government Railway Police on Friday arrested three men accused of kidnapping a two-month-old boy and selling him to an Ambernath resident for ₹1.5 lakh. The boy, who lived with his parents on the pavement outside railway Borivali railway station and was kidnapped on Saturday when his parents were not around, was also rescued by officers of the railway police’s crime branch.

HT Image

According to Arshuddin Shaikh, senior police inspector of the crime branch, when the boy’s 18-year-old mother realised that her child was kidnapped, she approached the police to register a case. Police then scanned CCTV footage of the entire locality but did not find any suspect.

“During investigation, we found that a man had been bringing milk for the child and enquiring about his health for three days preceding the incident,” said Shaikh. The man was traced through footage from traffic CCTV cameras, and identified as Abbas Kasim Shaikh, 22. He had handed the boy over to his employer in Govandi, identified as Sayyed Mehdi, 27, after kidnapping him.

On enquiring further, police found the boy was in Mehdi’s possession in Govandi’s Shivaji Nagar neighbourhood. They raided the spot on Friday morning and arrested the two accused.

“After detaining Mehdi, we found out he had promised his friend Atmaram Shashikant Aazgaonkar, a resident of Ambernath, that he would provide a child to him as he was unable to become a father,” said Sandeep Bhajibhakre, deputy commissioner of police (GRP).

Mehdi had told Shaikh, a labourer, to get a baby and promised to pay him ₹1.5 lakh once the baby was delivered. “The child was not taken to Ambernath but kept at Mehdi’s house. We rescued him from there and reunited him with his mother,” said Bhajibhakre.

Aazgaonkar was subsequently arrested from Ambernath.