Abducted 3-yr-old rescued in Mumbai

A day after the recovery of Karnit Shah, 6, a three-and-a-half-year-old boy abducted from Dindoshi was rescued from Silvassa in the wee hours of Thursday.

A day after the recovery of Karnit Shah, 6, a three-and-a-half-year-old boy abducted from Dindoshi was rescued from Silvassa in the wee hours of Thursday.

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Suphiyan Anwar Khan had gone missing from Shiv Sahi Prakalp area of Dindoshi, said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police, crime.

The mastermind of the crime, Salman Sheikh, 26, who was arrested from the Dadra and Nagar Haveli capital, said he had been inspired by Karnit’s abduction to make some quick money. His accomplice Karim Siddiqui, 19, is still at large. Around 7 pm on Tuesday, Suphiyan went missing while he was playing outside the house of his grandmother Mumtaz Begum. A complaint was lodged with the Dindoshi police.

On Wednesday evening, a ransom of Rs 7 lakh was demanded. “The abductor said the money should be paid at Benaras railway station,” said Roy.

The efforts of the police to establish the identity of the abductor from the incoming number recorded on the family’s cellphone drew a blank, as the caller’s SIM card had been procured by fake documents.

The police however, grew suspicious about Salman, who ran an STD booth at Sakinaka.

Salman knew the boy’s father, Anwar, and accompanied him in search of the child. Under questioning by the police, he spilled the beans.

“Salman said he was inspired by media reports on Karnit Shah’s abduction,” Roy said. He had roped in Kalim. Both of them are from UP’s Azamgarh district. “He had provided a SIM card to Kalim and facilitated the abduction,” Roy said.

A team was dispatched to Silvassa where Kalim had kept the boy in a safe house. Though Kalim escaped in the nick of time, the boy was rescued unharmed.