Woman abducts 2-year-old boy, held

Mumbai: The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) Government Railway Police (GRP) cracked a kidnapping case of a two-year-old boy who was abducted by a woman on Sunday and apprehended the woman from Tulinj in Nalasopara.

A railway police officer said that the woman fled with the baby boy when his mother fell asleep while waiting for a train to go to Aurangabad. She was tracked to Nalasopara with the help of CCTV camera footage and the boy was rescued.  

The arrested woman was identified as Parvatidevi Vishwakarma (40), who had stolen the baby boy from the main waiting hall at CSMT station, officer said. The incident took place on Sunday night, when Vimal Saatdive (35) was waiting for her husband. They were to leave for Kannad in Aurangabad that night, the officer added.

“The woman fell asleep for few minutes when the accused fled with the baby. The baby was found to be missing around midnight soon after which it was informed to the police,” said Purshottam Karad, deputy commissioner of police, GRP.

The officials began scanning the CCTV camera footage and found that the woman had gone to Nalasopara, where she had alighted from the train. Teams of the CSMT GRP launched a manhunt for the woman and upon questioning an auto rickshaw driver, succeeded in tracking her down to Tulinj.

The teams questioned several locals on Tulinj road where she had alighted from rickshaw and the police learnt that a woman residing in that area where a baby had joined the family suddenly. The police landed at the woman’s residence and upon verification, identified the baby boy to be the same who had gone missing.

The woman has been booked for kidnapping as per section 363 of the Indian Penal Code and has been remanded to police custody for further investigation. The officials said that they are probing if she has committed similar offences elsewhere and if she is associated with any baby stealing racket.