Woman fakes kidnap of baby to elope with male friend

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police Tuesday arrested a 22-year-old woman and her three accomplices for allegedly faking the kidnapping of her five-month-old son on the

Ghaziabad: The Ghaziabad police Tuesday arrested a 22-year-old woman and her three accomplices for allegedly faking the kidnapping of her five-month-old son on the night of August 31 from a weekly market in Indirapuram.

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The police said the woman planned the incident after she heard rumours about child-lifter gangs being active in the district. Police said she allegedly planned the fake kidnapping in order to elope with a 25-year-old man from her locality. She planned to later collect her son from her friend in Delhi, with whom she had entrusted the child.

The police identified the woman as Zainab, and the other suspects as her male friend Salman, and her woman friend Komal. The police also arrested Komal’s mother-in-law, Sunita. Both Komal and Sunita are residents of Himmatpuri in east Delhi (near Trilokpuri) while Zainab and Salman are residents of Khoda colony in Ghaziabad.

“After Zainab filed a kidnap complaint, we examined the footage from 250 CCTV cameras in the area from where Zainab claimed her child was kidnapped. We came to know that she left her house in Khoda around 5pm on August 31 and went to Trilokpuri. Thereafter, she returned to Sector 62, Noida (on the periphery of Khoda) and reached Indirapuram at 7.38pm. She had left her child in the care of Komal and Sunita,” HN Singh, officiating superintendent of police (city), said.

Zainab, in her complaint, had alleged that she had gone shopping at Shani Bazar in Indirapuram on the evening of August 31 and that she was followed by a woman. Zainab said the child vomited on her, so she handed over the baby to the woman who was standing nearby. She had gone to fetch some tissue paper to clean herself, when the woman fled with the child, Zainab said.

“Our woman sub-inspectors questioned Zainab at length and she finally admitted the truth. She told us that she was unhappy with her husband and had an affair with Salman. She said she wanted to elope with Salman but her husband was not ready to hand over the child to her. She was keen on keeping the child and so she left the child with Komal and planned to collect him later,” Singh said.

The police said Komal, her mother-in-law as well as Salman were in touch with Zainab and were part of the planning. After recovering the child, police handed him over to Zainab but she was arrested along the other three suspects.

“Since the child is being breastfed, he will remain with the mother. The custody of the child will be decided by the court,” Singh said.