Boy abducted ‘for woman who needed son’; rescued
BATHINDA: Seven people, including two women, have been arrested for allegedly abducting a one-year-old boy last week, Bathinda police said on Thursday.
The child, Ritik, who has been rescued, was taken away at behest of one of the accused Harjinder Kaur, a mother of four daughters, who was allegedly being harassed by her in-laws for not having a son, police added.
Addressing a press conference, Bathinda range inspector general of police (IGP) MF Farooqui said Ritik was abducted when he was sleeping with his mother at their house near Ring Road-2 last Thursday.
“Harjinder and Jaswinder have four daughters. Harjinder’s in-laws used to harass her for not having a son and had even threatened to get the couple divorced. Harjinder shared her plight with her brothers Gursahib and Kulwant, who then hatched a conspiracy to abduct a baby boy to help their sister save her marriage,” Farooqui added.
The other accused are her brother Gursahib Singh, mother Paramjit Kaur, Raj Kumar and Buta Singh, all residents of Ghudda village. Harjinder’s husband Jaswinder Singh, of Dhunike village and Gurmit Singh of Kala Tibba village in Fazilka district have also been arrested.
The child was recovered from Harjinder, who had taken him to Gurmit's house.
However, another accused Kulwant Singh, brother of Harjinder, is yet to be arrested.
Police have also recovered Mahindra Bolero jeep (PB-03AJ-3776) owned by Raj Kumar that was used during abduction.
“We relied on the information given by the child’s mother and CCTV footage. We focussed our investigation within a radius of 100km,” Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) Navin Singla said while giving details of the search operation.
SEVEN PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ARRESTED WHILE ONE REMAINS AT LARGE; MOTHER OF FOUR DAUGHTERS WAS BEING ‘HARASSED’ BY HER INLAWS