2-Month-Old Baby Girl Kidnapped In Mumbai Rescued; Couple Arrested

An Indian couple was arrested by Mumbai police on Thursday, Oct. 27 for allegedly kidnapping a 71-day-old baby girl from a pavement near St. Xavier’s College with the intention of selling the infant to a childless couple, said reports.

The baby was rescued by the police and handed over to the parents.

The accused have been identified as 46-year-old Mohammad Hanif Memon and his wife 39-year-old Afreen Memon who are residents of the Shanti Nagar area in Wadala East, India.

According to police, on the night of Oct. 25, the youngest daughter of the couple was reportedly taken away by an unknown person when they were sleeping with their three daughters.

When the mother woke up, she found the child was missing.

She couldn't find anything even after searching the entire neighborhood.

The next morning on Wednesday, Oct. 26, the woman approached the Azad Maidan police and reported the incident.

“We recorded the statement of the complainant woman and immediately registered a kidnapping against an unknown person and formed eight police teams to search for the baby girl in the entire south region. Two police teams were checking footage of CCTV cameras installed in the vicinity of the place of occurrence and railway stations,” said police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar.

“During scanning of the CCTV footage, police got a lead in which the accused was seen holding the baby girl in his arms. The teams followed the man in CCTV footage and later spotted him in the footage of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus railway station,” said the police chief.

“His wife was not with him at the time of kidnapping the girl. The accused was seen boarding a train at CSMT and found to be getting off at Wadala railway station,” he added.

With the help of modern technical analysis and undercover informants the police got the address of the accused and raided the place in Wadala East where they found the baby girl and arrested the couple for allegedly kidnapping the child, Phansalkar added.

The arrested couple has two children, a 13-year-old boy, and a 9-year-old girl. The rescued baby girl was handed over to her mother on Thursday, Oct. 27.