4-month-old kidnapped near Haji Ali, rescued in 24 hrs

The police’s prompt action helped rescue a four-month-old kidnapped boy from a woman before she could flee the city.  In less than 24 hours, the accused was nabbed when she was about to board a train for Lucknow.

On Thursday, Manisha Sanap alias Afreen Zaid, 23, a hawker, was selling eatables to passers-by near Haji Ali. Sanap’s son was sleeping in a makeshift swing nearby. When she went to check on her son around noon she found him missing.

Sanas approached the Gamdevi police station. The police swung into action and formed seven teams to track down the child. “We checked the CCTV footages of cameras installed at Bharat petrol pump near where Sanap used to sell eatables, outside Heera Panna and a shop nearby. The images were blurred but a close scrutiny of the footage showed us a woman in a pink dress, carrying a small child, asking money from a man. She then hailed a cab and was gone,” said Pradip Lonandkar, senior inspector of Gamdevi police station.

When the police questioned taxi drivers in the area, one of them said that a woman with a child had asked to be dropped to Byculla. Later, she got into an argument with the taxi driver over the fare and did not pay him. “The cabbie told us that he heard the woman mention Lucknow a few times to someone over phone. We asked policemen to keep a tab on all terminuses and trains leaving for Lucknow. We alerted the railway police,” Lonandkar added.

At 4am on Friday, police sub-inspector Sunil Mane, a police constable and an RPF constable, KS Bhalerao, were at Kurla terminus. Bhalerao spotted a woman with a child and nabbed her when she was about to board a train to Lucknow.

The accused, 40-year-old Shabnam Abbas Shaikh, a resident of Bhiwandi, kept telling the police that the child was hers. Later, she confessed to the kidnapping.

Sanap was reunited with her child. “I did not think that the kidnapper would be caught. I am thankful to the police for bringing me my son back,” she said.

Cop rewarded
Alok Bohra, senior Divisional Security Commissioner of RPF (Central Railway) said that RPF constable KS Bhalerao foiled the kidnap bid. The Gamdevi police felicitated Bhalerao with a cash reward of Rs5,000. The RPF also rewarded him with Rs1,000 cash and an appreciation letter.

(With inputs from Dayanand Kamath)