The Thane Crime Branch has arrested a Nashik-based woman for allegedly kidnapping a two-month-old boy from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus earlier this year. The case was solved while the police were probing the kidnapping of a 10-month-old boy from Mumbra, which is still being investigated.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the police, 10-month-old Salman went missing from Mumbra on February 3 while playing with his sister Sonia (9). Examination of CCTV camera footage showed a burqa-clad woman taking Salman away. The Unit I of the Thane Crime Branch conducted parallel investigation into the case.
“We scanned CCTV footage of all railway stations in Mumbai and Thane to trace the movements of the suspect. We found that a similar case had been registered with the CSMT railway police on March 29, when a two-month-old boy had gone missing from the station. We studied the footage of the case and found similarities in the movements of the burqa-clad woman in our case,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Deepak Deoraj, Thane Crime Branch, said.
A joint probe was initiated, and the police, based on cellular location mapping, zeroed in on a number whose cellular movements matched the movements of the suspect in the CSMT kidnapping case. While tracking the number, the police traced it to Panchavati in Nashik, and sent a team to the location.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We reached the residence of the suspect, Neelam Bora (39), in Shraddha Park of Nashik on April 14. We found the two-month-old boy in her house, and brought both of them to Thane. After the boy’s parents identified him as their son, we arrested Ms. Bora and charged her with kidnapping under the Indian Penal Code,” an officer with the Unit I said.
The officer said inquiries so far have not established Ms. Bora’s involvement in the Mumbra case.
Meanwhile, Ms. Bora has said in her interrogation that she kidnapped the baby as she did not have a child of her own despite several years of marriage and saw him, a waste picker’s son, lying unattended at the station.