Three-year-old Sangita, who was kidnapped from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on June 10, was rescued from her kidnapper at the Haridwar bus station by the Haridwar Police, on Saturday afternoon.

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The alleged kidnapper, identified as Raju, was also arrested by the Haridwar Police. The Government Railway Police (GRP) of Maharashtra recently released shocking CCTV footage of the kidnapping. It shows a limping man alighting from a train and wandering about the station before spotting the sleeping family and three-year-old Sangeeta, who was not asleep at the time. The man then sat beside her and took her away.

“Our team of six officers has left for Haridwar in the Punjab Mail and should reach there tomorrow. On being shown the footage, the parents identified the girl as their daughter. After completing all the legal formalities, the girl will be brought back in three days while the kidnapper will also be tried,” said Surendra Deshmukh, senior police inspector, CST, government railway police.

Sangeeta’s parents are residents of Amravati and work as contract labourers. They were supposed to board a train on the night of June 10 but missed it and decided to sleep for a brief while before the next train arrived, informed GRP officials. Since the footage recorded by the Central Railway’s CCTV cameras was flashed prominently by news channels on TV, passengers at Haridwar station were alerted when a similar limping man was spotted. They immediately informed the Haridwar Police who rescued Sangeeta.

This prompted a minor clash over taking credit for the successful investigation between GRP and the railway police force (RPF), as the latter manages the entire integrated security system of the railways of which CCTVs are a part.

Chief spokesperson of Cental Railway, V A Malegaonkar, sought to distance the administration from the clash but not before stating the obvious. “It is a fact that the Railways’ CCTV cameras are helping crack down on drug peddlers, child-lifters and international terrorists, among others. It thus proves that the railway’s CCTVs are functioning. We are happy that we could contribute to the successful investigation,” he said.