Cops rescue toddler abducted for begging

Three days after a two-and-a-half-year-old boy went missing from his house, the Bhandup police made a breakthrough yesterday.

Reunited: Abdul Rehman Khan, who was abducted by a beggar woman, was reunited with his father Niyaz Khan after a three-day ordeal

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Cops arrested an alleged beggar woman, Fatima (30), on charges of abduction and rescued the toddler, Abdul Rehman Khan, and handed him over to his father Niyaz Khan.

"We received a tip-off that Fatima would be visiting Bhandup railway station to meet her husband yesterday. Based on the leads we had in the case, we nabbed her and rescued the young child," said Srirang Nadgauda, senior police inspector of Bhandup police station.

He further said, "Since Fatima begs in trains and on the streets, she needed a toddler, so that people give her money." On April 1, Abdul went missing from his house in Sonapur, Bhandup (West) while playing in the area.

Following a frantic search operation, which bore no results, Khan, who works as a computer technician, lodged a complaint with the cops alleging kidnap.

As the police started their investigations, they were notified that a woman staying at Jaishankar Nagar in the vicinity of Khan's residence was untraceable since the day of the abduction. Cops picked up her husband from his house and started interrogating him.

After questioning her husband, the cops were assured that his wife had a role to play in the abduction, as he confirmed that his wife had not come home since Sunday.

The police started keeping a tab on him, and soon got a tip-off that he had received a call from his wife. After following him to the railway station, the cops arrested the woman. u00a0"I had searched every lane of Bhandup for three days, and I have hardly slept since that day," said the father. u00a0