Woman who stole one-year-old girl from pavement arrested in Jaipur

A one-year-old girl, stolen from Churchgate, was rescued in Jaipur; a 23-year-old woman was arrested. Police tracked the abductor through CCTV.

MUMBAI: Almost three weeks after a one-year-old girl was stolen from the pavements when she was sleeping with her parents in Churchgate, the crime branch unit 1 on Wednesday rescued the child from Jaipur, Rajasthan, and arrested a 23-year-old woman.

The rescued baby with a crime branch official.

The arrested accused, Priti alias Payal, had allegedly kidnapped the girl in the wee hours of September 10 when she was sleeping with her parents on the footpath behind Eros Cinema in Churchgate.

Next day when the parents woke up to find the girl missing, they approached the Marine Drive police station, and a case of kidnapping under section 137 of BNS was registered against an unknown person. The local police and Mumbai crime branch started conducting investigation. They scrutinized the CCTV footage of nearby areas and the railway station and learnt that a woman abducted her between 1am to 4am.

The parents of the child prepared posters and banners, sharing them on social media to raise awareness about the abduction, said a police officer.

The police found out that the woman had boarded a train with the baby girl from Churchgate railway station and got off at Bandra railway station. By searching the CCTV footage of Bandra railway station, the crime branch officials found that she boarded a train from Bandra terminus, and got down at Nagda railway station in Madhya Pradesh on September 12 and later took another train to Jaipur, added the police officer.

A Mumbai crime branch team and local police visited Jaipur and searched for the abductor and baby girl for almost 10 days, but did not find any leads and returned to Mumbai, said a police officer.

“We alerted the local police as well as informants in Jaipur who were continuously searching for the baby and her abductor. One informant got a lead and informed us that a woman along with a one-year-old baby girl had been sleeping in an ATM kiosk for the past 10 days. The informant then shared the pictures of them with officials of Unit 1,” said the police officer.

“The pictures of the woman and girl matched, and immediately the local police were alerted, and they nabbed the woman on Wednesday evening. A police team including woman staff from crime branch unit 1 were sent to Jaipur and they took the woman and baby’s custody. The accused was produced before a local court on Thursday and was sent into transit remand for three days, said police inspector Rohini Potdar of unit 1.

The team will bring the baby girl and the accused to Mumbai on Friday, the official added.

During preliminary investigation, it was learnt that the woman’s native place was in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, but settled in Jaipur after she got married. She came to Mumbai a few days ago intending to steal a baby for herself, claimed the officer.

“As of now, her intention does not seem to sell the baby and so far, we haven’t found any cases registered against her,” said deputy commissioner of police Datta Nalawade. He added that the crime branch was yet to locate the woman’s family and ascertain her claims.