Cops bust inter-state gang of kidnappers, reunite toddler with mother

Special Correspondent

WITHIN five hours of the sensational kidnapping of an eight-month-old toddler from Chikhli slums in Kalamna area, City Police rescued the child after apprehending four abductors, including a woman, in the small hours of Friday. The four kidnappers are the members of an inter-state gang involved in stealing minors and selling them to childless couples for lakhs of rupees.

The accused arrested have been identified as Farzan alias Ansar Qureshi (40), a resident of Kundanlal Gupta Nagar; Seema Parveen Abdul Rouf Ansari (38), a resident of Vinoba Bhave Nagar; Badal Dhanraj Madke (35), a resident of Bhoslewadi, Lashkaribag, Pachpaoli, and Sachin Ramesh Patil (45), a resident of Indora Model Town, Jaripatka.

Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar, who announced a cash reward of Rs one lakh to the joint team that traced the gang members and nabbed them after rescuing eight-month-old Jiten Raju Nishad, told mediapersons that the gang had sold the toddler to accused Sachin Patil and his wife for Rs 2.50 lakh. Cops ensured that the boy kidnapped by the accused was reunited with his mother Rajkumari Raju Nishad (35), who works as a labourer and resides at Chikhli slums, after his medical examination and completing the necessary legal formalities with the Child Welfare Committee, he added.

Kumar informed that police launched a search for three other accused -- Yogendra Prajapati, his wife Rita Prajapati, both natives of Kota, Rajasthan, and one Shweta Khan, a resident of Balaghat district, Madhya Pradesh -- in this connection. Prima facie, the City Police chief said, accused Shweta Khan was the gang leader and was targeting extremely vulnerable couples. Two such offences of kidnapping and selling children to issue-less married couples were already registered against her, he added.

Kumar said that preliminary investigations revealed that accused Yogendra and Rita Prajapati were the neighbours of complainant Rajkumari Nishad. The couple often used to play with Rajkumari’s son Jiten by taking him home. As her child and Prajapati couple were missing, he said, Rajkumari approached Kalamna Police and lodged a complaint.

A joint team of Kalamna Police, Yashodhara Nagar Police and Crime Branch was formed to rescue the boy and arrest the kidnappers, he added. The Commissioner of Police informed that the joint team cracked the kidnapping case using a mobile tracking system and checking the footage of 105 CCTV cameras.

Kumar said that the case was still under investigation and other accused gang members would soon be arrested.

The toddler was rescued and the four accused were nabbed by a joint team comprising Senior PI Vinod Patil (Kalamna), Senior PI Vishwanath Chauhan (Yashodhara Nagar), Senior PI Kotnake (Pardi) PI Kishor Parvate (Crime Branch), PI Nitin Ambhore, API Rahul Sawant, API Riyaz Mulani, API Ganesh Pawar (Crime Branch), PSI Vivek Zingre, WPSI Laxmi Tambuskar, PSI Sanjay Mane, PSI Arun Sarware ASI Ajay Garge and others under the supervision of Commissioner of Police Kumar, Additional CP (Crime) Navinchandra Reddy, DCP (Detection) Chinmay Pandit, DCP (Zone-V) Dr Sandeep Pakhale, and ACP (Kamptee Division) B Nalawade.