Hawker steals three-month-old on pretext of selling bucket

A three-month-old baby girl was allegedly stolen by a woman hawker from the Kalachowki area on Tuesday

A three-month-old baby girl was allegedly stolen by a woman hawker from the Kalachowki area on Tuesday.

A three-month old baby girl was allegedly stolen by a woman hawker from Kalachowki area on Tuesday. (AFP)

As per the complaint, a hawker approached the girl’s mother at her residence to sell a plastic bucket in exchange for old clothes or old mobile phones. When the mother proceeded to her room, the hawker followed her and pressed a chloroform-laced cloth on her mouth, due to which, the mother lost her consciousness, said a police officer. The woman hawker then picked up the baby girl, who was sleeping at the time, and fled from the house, the officer added.

The incident occurred around 12:15pm when the mother and child were at home and her husband had stepped out for work.

After she gained consciousness, she called her husband and approached the Kalachowki police station to report the incident.

The police have registered a first information report and several teams have been constituted to search the woman hawker, said the police officer. Police are also scrutinising footage of CCTV cameras in the vicinity.

“The crime branch has also started a parallel investigation and one of their teams has been questioning hawkers in the locality to get the details of the accused. We are making all efforts to trace the stolen child and espousing all possibilities,” said deputy commissioner of police Vijay Patil of zone 4.