Kidnapped newborn reunited with mother, five other kids found at accused’s home in Thane

The Thane crime branch had made seven teams to track the accused, whose identity was known thanks to the CCTV footage

The search for a newborn, who was kidnapped from Thane civil hospital on Sunday, led the police to a gang and five other children, which cops suspect they may have abducted. While the newborn boy was reunited with his mother on Monday, the police have arrested a couple and their relative on charges of kidnapping.

The child being returned to the mother. (Praful Gangurde)

The CCTV footage of the hospital showed a man and a woman lifting the child from the hospital. The accused took an autorickshaw to the Thane railway station, from where they went to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) in a train. They returned to Dombivli in the same train, from where they went to their home in Pisavali village in Kalyan, said police.

The Thane crime branch had made seven teams to track the accused, whose identity was known thanks to the CCTV footage. The child was found at the couple’s home, said police. “The three Kalyan residents -- Gudiya Sonu Rajbhar, 35, Sonu Parshuram Rajbhar,40, and their relative Vijay Kailash Shrivastav, 55 -- do odd jobs. We found five other children in their home, who Gudiya claimed were hers. Of the five, only one child said that Gudiya was her mother,” said Madhukar Pandey, joint commissioner, Thane police.

The police plan to conduct a DNA test on the five children – aged 2 months, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years and 13 years.

Abhishek Trimukhe, deputy commissioner of police, Thane crime branch, said, “We have sent the children to a remand home. We are investigating the accused’s modus operandi. It was found that the woman came to the labour ward in the afternoon for a reconnaissance. She took away the child from the woman on the pretext of showing it to latter’s mother.”