Two couples held for kidnapping infant for ₹5 lakh ransom, cops probe child trafficking angle

Two couples were arrested in connection with a case of kidnapping for ransom a three-month-old baby boy, who was safely rescued from the house of one of the couples

Two couples were arrested in connection with a case of kidnapping for ransom a three-month-old baby boy, who was safely rescued from the house of one of the couples in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut on Monday, 10 days after he was kidnapped from his home in south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar, the police said.

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Police officers said they are probing the involvement of an organised child trafficking syndicate in the kidnapping and suspect that the infant was abducted with an intention to be sold to a childless couple.

The prime suspect, Ranvir Singh, who had planned the kidnapping and offered the child’s mother ₹1.5 lakh to buy her son about a month ago, and another kidnapper Babloo, are still absconding. The police said they are also looking into the alleged role of Singh’s mother-in-law, Pinki, who is a neighbour of the child’s mother.

Deputy commissioner of police (south) Atul Kumar Thakur said Sanjay and Rekha, from whose house the child was rescued, had also made a ransom call to the child’s mother for ₹5 lakh. The other couple—Qmar Alam and wife Mukesh—had given the child to Sanjay and Rekha to keep him for a few days and had promised them ₹20,000.

“Rekha and Mukesh are sisters. Alam and one of the absconding suspects, Babloo, had kidnapped the child from his home on March 6,” the DCP said.

According to the DCP, the toddler’s mother is a single parent to twins and hails from Assam. She lives in Sangam Vihar and works as a domestic help in the neighbourhood. “On March 6, she left her sons at home and went to buy food from a nearby eatery. When she returned after 15-20 minutes, she found one of her sons missing. The woman approached the Tigri police station and a case of kidnapping was registered,” Thakur said.

The police first interrogated Pinki after the complainant informed that she and her son-in-law had offered to “buy” one of her sons for ₹1.5 lakh. During interrogation, Pinki claimed she was unaware of the kidnapping. Investigators scanned the footage of some CCTV cameras in the area and found two men taking the child away on a motorcycle, the registration number of which was not visible in the footage.

“More cameras on the possible escape routes were checked. One of the cameras captured the child being shifted to a car, which turned out to be of Pinki’s son-in-law, Ranvir Singh. He was found missing from his home. Technical investigation and human intelligence helped us identify the bike-borne kidnappers as Qmar Alam and Babloo,” an investigator said requesting that he not be named.

The police raided possible hideouts of the suspects. One such raid at the house of Alam’s sister-in-law Rekha helped them rescue the child. Rekha and her husband Sanjay were arrested and their interrogation led to the arrest of Alam and Mukesh, the police said.