Alert woman foils abduction attempt

NEW DELHI: The alertness of a woman prevented the kidnapping of a one-and-half-year-old girl in outer Delhi’s Mangolpuri on Saturday afternoon. The woman, Meera, is a distant relative of the child and lives in the neighbourhood with her family.

Police said that the entire act was captured on a CCTV camera installed in the lane from where the attempt to kidnap the girl child was made. The cops later arrested the alleged kidnapper, identified by his first name Yashpal, 27, who hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh. Some tablets, supposedly sleeping pills commonly used by drug addicts, was recovered from the accused. A case of attempted kidnapping was registered at the Mangolpuri police station and Yashpal produced before a city court, which sent him to judicial custody.

RS Sagar, additional deputy commissioner of police (outer), said they will seek Yashpal’s custody to interrogate him further and ascertain if he is a member of a organised interstate crime syndicate involved in kidnapping, trafficking and sale of minor children.

A police officer said the kidnapping attempt took place in Mangolpuri’s C-block, where the girl child lives with her parents and other family members. Around 2pm, the child was playing in the lane outside her home when an unidentified man approached her and started playing with her. Soon, he picked her up in his lap and started walking away.

The girl’s relative Meera, who was chatting with two other women nearby, saw the man taking the child away. She immediately became suspicious and raised an alarm. As the man started running with the child, she along with some other neighbours chased Yashpal and caught him.

“The accused first claimed that he lives in the neighbourhood but in a different block. When he was asked to show his house, he failed to do so and was thrashed by locals. The police control room was informed. A police team later reached the spot and took him into custody,” said Sagar.

Police said Yashpal worked at an LPG agency in Gurugram.