Mumbai: Woman steals baby from Kandivli slum, love triangle suspected

While the parents were at the police station the kids were waiting at the tent where the family also sells helmetsA 35yearold woman who lives with her family in a shanty opposite a Muslim cemetery on Marve Road only wanted to save her marriage when she drove away her husbands female friend from their home Now she suspects the same woman has stolen their threemonthold daughter in the dead of the night from right under their noses in a fit of revengeDevli Singh 35 and her husband Manoj 40 have 10 daughters but the family has been hit hard by the abduction of the youngest threemonthold Shravani The couple lives on the footpath opposite the Muslim cemetery on Marve Road where they share a tent with the nine children left after the marriage of their eldest It was from this makeshift shanty that little Shravani was kidnapped between 2 and 3 am yesterday while the family was fast asleepHome breakerAn officer from Kandivli police told this reporter that the mother suspects that the baby was kidnapped by her husbands friend Aarti a woman in the mid30s who would often visit the familys shanty and drink late into the night with her husbandBetween 2 and 3 am the unidentified woman crosses the road and walks towards the familyrsquos tent on Marve Road Inside the tent the family is fast asleep The suspect grabs the baby from the line of sleeping children inside She flees the scene with threemonthold Shravani CCTV cameras fail to capture in which direction she goes Around 4 am the mother wakes up to see her baby is missing and alerts the cops IllustrationsUday MohiteAbout a month ago Devli spotted the woman spending another late night with her husband and flew into a jealous rage She slapped the woman and drove her out of the tent Now she suspects that the woman may have taken her baby in revenge for the humiliation said the officerDevli realised her baby was missing around 4 in the morning when she had woken up to fill drinking water One of the children Koshal Singh 17 said I woke up to my mothers shrieks and realised that Shravani is missing We gathered people from other hutments and the nearby furniture market and searched for my sister but could not find her anywhereWhen midday visited the spot only the kids were present at the hut where the family also sells helmets The eldest daughter is 22 years old but she is currently in Delhi with her husband My parents have gone to Kandivli police station to register a complaint They are still there but the police have no clue about where Shravani may be added KoshalCCTV footageCops said they recovered footage from CCTV cameras in the vicinity that show a woman walking into the tent between 2 and 3 am and then walking out with the baby shortly after However she crossed the road and the CCTV camera could not capture which direction she was headed to said an officerWhen Devli was shown the footage she said the suspect looked very similar to her husbands friend whom the police now consider the prime suspect However all attempts to find her have been unsuccessful so far The police were unwilling to divulge any further details since it could tipoff the suspect about their investigationWe have registered a kidnapping case against an unidentified accused and are investigating As the matter is sensitive we cannot reveal any more information said an officer