Officers of the Mumbai crime branch have rescued an 18-month-old child, Vihaan Shah, who was allegedly kidnapped by domestic help from his family’s Malabar Hill residence.
Officers of the Mumbai crime branch have rescued an 18-month-old child, Vihaan Shah, who was allegedly kidnapped by domestic help from his family’s Malabar Hill residence. The police also took the maid and her husband into custody at Manmad railway station. The arrested have been identified as Sangeeta, 30, and her husband, Hari Singh, 40, who have both been working as domestic help in the city for the past ten years.
According to the police, the kidnapped child’s grandfather, Yatin Shah, had visited his daughter in the United States, bringing his grandson to Mumbai on March 29. “On March 31, the maid left with Vihaan, saying she was taking him for a walk. A few hours later, when she did not return, the Shah family registered a complaint with the Malabar Hill police station,” said joint commissioner of police, crime, Himanshu Roy.
The crime branch has also initiated a parallel investigation on Sangeeta’s husband, who allegedly disappeared at the same time as Vihaan’s kidnapping. Roy added that on receipt of specific information, the couple was traced to Manmad railway station and apprehended at around 1.30am on Saturday. “They told the police that after kidnapping Vihaan, they travelled to Pune and later Aurangabad, before reaching Manmad. They had also booked a ticket for Delhi, but had missed a train from Manmad and were waiting for the next train when they were caught,” he said.
“Sangeeta was planning to go to Delhi, and demand a ransom of Rs5 lakh from Shah. They were going to give a bank account number to the family to deposit the money,” said senior inspector Nishikant Patil.” The arrested couple claims they have three children who are staying with a relative in a village near the Nepal border. As of now it seems only the couple was involved in the crime but investigations are on,” added Roy. “Eight days before Vihaan was kidnapped, Sangeeta had planned to kidnap Shirom, another grandson of Shah. But when she was about to leave the residence, Shirom’s grandmother Neela spotted her and intervened. Sangeeta had then aborted the plan out of fear,” said Roy.
Roy pointed out precautionary measures that parents can take, saying, “Sangeeta’s details were not registered with the police by the Shah family. We make a sincere appeal to citizens that they should provide details about their maids and domestic help to the police so that whenever such an instance takes place, it would be of great help to the police.”
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