Baby girl stolen from Mumbai railway station traced in Haridwar

A three-year-old girl, kidnapped from a railway station here last month, was traced in the holy town of Haridwar in Uttarakhand from where she has been rescued, police said today.

The alleged kidnapper, identified as Raju, has been arrested by the Haridwar Police, they said.

"Haridwar Police has informed us about the development and a team is being sent there," Mumbai Railway Police Commissioner Prabhat Kumar said.

The girl was stolen by an unidentified man when she was sleeping with her parents, who were contract labourers hailing from Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, at Mumbai's Chhattrapati Shivaji Terminus station on June 10.

The Railway Police had yesterday released a photograph and CCTV footage to track down the culprit.

The CCTV footage showed a limping man alighting from a train and wandering around the station before spotting the family with the sleeping baby. He then sat besides her and took her away.

The girl's parents used to clean the railway tracks. They were to board a train in the night but missed it, following which they decided to sleep at the station and catch the next train, police said.

Surendranath Deshmukh, senior inspector at CST railway police station, said the mother of the child has identified her daughter, who was shown on a TV channel.

Verification of her picture will be done through e-mail and a team of Government Railway Police (GRP) will be sent to Haridwar for further formalities, he said.

Police said description of the clothes worn by the child, identified as Sangeeta, at the time of the incident matched with the details given by her parents.

The accused, who was made to speak to Mumbai Police over phone, admitted to picking up the child to force her into begging, Deshmukh said.

Though the girl is very scared, no physical harm has been done to her, he said.
Raju told police he hails from Mumbai and works as a station sweeper, Deshmukh said.

Deshmukh said there are half-a-dozen other cases related to kidnap and murder registered with the police station and they would ascertain if Raju had a role in any of them.

Meanwhile, DCP Ambadas Pote said police will also interrogate Raju in connection with rape and murder of three minor girls in south Mumbai.

The rape and murder cases were reported from upscale Cuffe Parade area between November 2011 and April 2012. The victims were aged between three to four years.