Thane police reunite abducted infant with family, rescue six other children and arrest couple that had kidnapped them all
The Thane police reunited the newborn, abducted in the wee hours of Sunday, with his mother (centre, in blue)
For the Thane police, reuniting an abducted newborn with his family and rescuing at least six more children who are also suspected to have been kidnapped was all in a (Sun)day's work. They have arrested three people in the case so far. Apart from the newborn, the main accused couple have claimed the other six to be their kids, but cops will conduct a DNA test to verify it. The accused have been identified as Gudiya Sonu Rajbhar, 35, her husband Sonu Parshuram Rajbhar, 40 and Vijay Kailash Shrivastav, 55. "All three were arrested on Monday from their rented residence in Pisavli, Kalyan. Further investigation is on to learn about the racket," said M Pandey, joint commissioner of police, Thane, on Monday.
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Took the baby away
Gudiya, Sonu and Vijay were held after the cops on January 14 began investigating the case of a newborn's abduction from the Thane civil hospital. The complainant in the case is Mohini Bhovar, 19, who had given birth to the baby on Saturday night. "She claims around 2 am to 2.30 am, Gudiya approached her and allegedly said her [Mohini's] mother had asked for the child and took the baby away. Around 3.15 am, Mohini's mother came and asked about the child. But she was shocked to not see the infant there and began searching for him. Till then, Gudiya had left with the kid," said an official from Thane crime branch.
With the help of CCTV footage from the hospital's main gate it was found that Gudiya and Vijay had entered the hospital around 6.38 pm on Saturday with a 13-year-old girl. Later, footage from the ward showed Gudiya taking the child without any interference. Pandey said, "They were keeping a tab on the ward. Seeing Mohini's mother sitting outside, Gudiya took away the child. We later found that Gauri and Vijay had boarded a train from Thane."
The Thane crime branch's unit 1, who were investigating the matter, found Gudiya and Vijay had boarded an Ambarnath-CST train from Thane railway station's platform number 3. "They went to CST, again boarded the same train and got down at Dombivli railway station, from where they went home" said an official.
Residence raided
Nitin Thakre, senior police inspector, Thane crime branch unit 1 said, "After getting confirmation about them alighting at Dombivli railway station, we found through the local network that they reside in Pisavli. We raided their residence and found a few more children. Mohini's newborn was hidden in a newspaper. We are verifying different angles and their past records to get details about the syndicate." Meanwhile, Pandey added that including the 13-year-old girl who was seen in the CCTV footage, the crime branch sleuths rescued five other kids, which include a two-month-old boy, two-year-old boy and five, seven and nine-year-old girls. "We are verifying their background and doing a DNA test as Gudiya claims they're all her kids. But we doubt it," added Thakre.
'Gudiya is our mother'
The Thane police suspect this to either be a huge child trafficking racket where children are sent off for doing household work or used for begging. When cops raided the Rajbhar residence, all kids were busy with housework. They said were doing the chores as they usually do. The 13-year-old told cops she knows she has a two-year-old brother and their mother is Gudiya. The other kids are not aware of their background and claim Gudiya is their mother.
Kemi Patil, civil surgeon, Thane civil hospital said, "Mohini's newborn baby boy was rescued by cops and handed over to the parents. We found him to be fit and fine." When question about the lack of security in the hospital, Patil further said, "We have written to authorities in the past to increase the security. On the grounds of the kidnapping case, we will once again write to them, demanding high security in the hospital so that such incidents don't occur in the future."
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