One more nabbed in child kidnapping case, 5 held so far

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One more person has been arrested by Thane police in Maharashtra for his alleged involvement in a child-lifting racket, taking the total number of arrests in the case to five, police said on Wednesday. The accused, Mohammad Azaruddin (35), an auto-rickshaw driver, was arrested on Tuesday from Mumbra town here, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone-1) S S Burse said.

The man allegedly used to help the gang transport the children from one location to another, he said. On Monday, the police claimed to have busted a gang of child lifters with the arrest of four persons from Mumbra.

Police suspect that the accused kidnapped at least 8 to 10 children from various localities and sold them over the last few months, an official earlier said. The gang was exposed after police traced a two-year- old boy, Ahmed Jamal Ahmed Shah, resident of Dahisar in Mumbai, to a house in Mumbra which belonged to one of the accused, he said.

Shah had gone missing from his house after his mother stepped out to fill water on March 31. Those arrested earlier were identified as Afrin Khan (20), Muniba Shah (40), Azim Divekar (49) and his wife Amira Divekar (46). According to police, Khan had allegedly kidnapped the boy from Dahisar and hid him at Divekars' residence in Mumbra. During interrogation, she kept changing her statements and also claimed that she had kidnapped at least half-a-dozen children and later killed and buried them, an official at Shil-Daighar police station said.

However, the police dug up some places in Shil-Daighar area specified were her, but did not find anything, he said. She also told the police that some of the kidnapped children were sent abroad, but the police were yet to verify her claim, the official said. A case was registered against the accused under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the police were also trying to trace the persons to whom the children were allegedly sold.

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