Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
Third arrest in baby girl’s kidnapping case
MUMBAI: The Azad Maidan police on Friday arrested a third accused in connection with the kidnapping of 71-day-old baby girl from the pavement near St Xavier’s School in South Mumbai.
Police officials said the arrested accused, Santosh Dhumale, 30, was ward boy at Sion Hospital. The accused lives in Dharavi and had promised to pay ₹60,000 to the arrested couple for a new born baby.
The police have been questioning Dhumale to further link the other accused involved in the child theft racket. Police suspect that the other members had promised Dhumale a huge amount for a new born baby.
Dhumale’s name came up during interrogation of the Wadala-based couple arrested on
Thursday for allegedly kidnapping on the night of October 25.
The man and his wife – Mohammad Hanif Memon, 46, and Afreen Memon, 39, have been sent to police custody till
November 3 and the rescued baby girl handed over to her mother on the morning of October 27.
Dhumale worked at Sion hospital till 2020 on contractual basis as a ward boy but later lost his job. He then started driving a private vehicle. He came in contact with Afreen about a month ago and told her that he required a new born baby.
He suggested that she could arrange a child from some pavement dweller, who have two to three children but could not take care of them and offered to pay ₹60,000, said a police officer, who is part of the investigating team.
Afreen then told her husband Hanif and they started looking for a small baby on pavements. The couple had earlier lived on the pavement near Metro cinema knew that many poor families lived around the area.
The couple came two days before the incident and decided to kidnap the girl, added officer.
While checking call data records the police found at least 15 calls from Dhumale to the couple on the day of the incident. Even when Hanif kidnapped the girl, Dhumale was in touch with him on phone, added the officer.
The crime happened late in the night on October 25 when the couple was asleep with their three daughters. When the mother woke up early in the morning of October 26, she found her youngest daughter missing. She searched the area frantically. She then approached the Azad Maidan police and reported the incident.
Using a long trail of CCTV footages from the spot, various railway stations and also their network of informers, police tracked down the couple at Shanti Nagar in Wadala East where they found the infant. The police then rescued baby girl and arrested the couple.