Mission to find Sabir led cops to 54 other missing kids
NEW DELHI:
The Delhi Police’s momentous task of finding 54 missing children and reuniting them with their parents by Delhi police actually began with a mission to finding Sabir, a two-anda-half month old boy who had been kidnapped in 2008 from Delhi’s Nihal Vihar area.
The parents of the baby boy, both labourers, had lodged a police complaint that a man named Ashraful and a woman had kidnapped their son.
However, no substantial progress was made till 2009, before the case was transferred to Anti Trafficing Unit of West Delhi Police.
“Having only the name of the accused, we travelled to West Bengal, and eventually arrested him from Murshidabad in West Bengal,” said sub-inspector Ashok Kumar.
What unravelled in the course of the investigation was a story that imitated a thriller film.
Ashraful told police that he was in love with one Sukrana Bibi, a woman 20 years older to him. Since his parents did not agree to their marriage, the couple decided to steal a child and raise him as their own. They felt that the child would let them live a happy life.
“However, the accused said that Sukrana was living in Delhi’s Shastri Park, along with the kidnapped child. The couple also changed the name of the boy and called him Habib,” said Vijay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West).
The team of police officers then visited all schools in the area to know whether a boy with the name Habib and mother’s name Sukrana was admitted.
“We succeeded in finding a school with the match. However, Sukrana sniffed our presence and left the place, only to return without the child after months,” said Ashok Kumar.
Police eventually arrested Sukrana and recovered the boy, whom she had admitted in a madarsa in Murshidabad.
“We handed over the boy to the family after DNA profiling. To encourage the meticulous investigation, we then started a drive to reunite missing children with their parents,” Vijay Kumar said.