13 December,2016 11:20 AM IST | | Suraj Ojha
A week after Kandivli police busted a baby selling racket, the Mankhurd police has also cracked a second such ring flourishing discreetly in Mumbai's underbelly and arrested four women in the case
The baby that was recovered from the arrested accused
A week after the Kandivli police busted a baby selling racket with the arrest of six people, the Mankhurd police has also cracked a second such ring flourishing discreetly in the city's underbelly and arrested four women in the case.
The Mankhurd police first got on the case on December 5 when Mohammad Arif Khan filed a complaint that his one-and-a-half-year-old son Ahmad had been missing from the Mankhurd area, after which the police registered a kidnapping case against unknown persons.
The accused have been identified as Yogita Sale (21) and Asha Thakur (36), both residents of Titwala, along with Nurjahan Mulla (40) and Prabhavati Naik (48), both living in Goa.
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DCP Shahaji Umap, told mid-day, "We picked up Yogita on suspicion, and after sustained interrogation, she confessed that she had kidnapped the child from Mankhurd," adding that she was in a "financial crisis after she left her husband and started living with her mother in Titwala. One day, she shared her troubles with her friend Asha, who then gave her the idea of kidnapping a baby. Asha told Yogita that she knew a gang who would be willing to purchase a baby for good money."
Cracking the case
Agreeing to this, Yogita came to Mankhurd and kidnapped Khan's baby, following which, she and her friend Gita took him to Goa in a train. There, they met Noorjahan, whose role was to scout for prospective buyers as she was working with an NGO that aided needy parents. She had already brokered a deal with a senior citizen couple based in Goa.
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The childless couple had agreed to buy the baby boy for R2.5 lakh after she told them that Yogita was selling the baby because her husband had died and she needed to marry again.
An officer from Mankhurd police station said, "The couple wanted to pay with a cheque, but Noorjahan wanted cash in the new denomination so the couple sought some time to arrange the sum. When our team reached Goa, the couple cooperated with us and handed over the baby to the police officers. This could be a bigger racket so we are still investigating it scope and spread."
