Mumbai: Four women held for kidnapping, trafficking 5-year-old girl in Bhandup

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Four women were held by the Mumbai Police for allegedly kidnapping and planning to sell a five-year-old girl from Bhandup area for money, the police officials said on Tuesday, the ANI reported.

According to the police, two women allegedly kidnapped the minor girl from Bhandup for selling her to two other women in Thane district of Maharashtra.

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The arrested accused women have been identified as Khushboo Gupta (19), Maina Rajaram Dilod (39), Divya Kailash Singh (33) and Payal Hemant Shaha (32), as per the PTI.

All the accused were produced before the court wherein they were sent to the police custody till March 28.

The police said that the parents of the five-year-old lodged a complaint after their daughter, who had gone to buy balloons for Holi from a nearby shop, did not return home, according to the PTI.

The police have booked the four women under sections 363 (kidnapping), 370 (trafficking of persons) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC.

"The girl was allegedly abducted with the intention of selling. The police freed the girl from the clutches of the kidnappers within just 12 hours. A plan was made to sell the girl for money. The girl has now been handed over to her family. The accused women had planned to sell the girl to earn money," the Bhandup Police said on Tuesday, the news agency reported.

Meanwhile, in an another incident, a man, who is a tailor by profession, was arrested on Monday for allegedly kidnapping a 9-year-old boy for ransom of Rs 23 lakh with which he wanted to build a house and killing him in Thane district of Maharashtra, police said, reported the PTI.

The boy went missing when he was returning from a mosque in Goregaon village where he had gone for evening prayers on Sunday, as per the PTI.

The accused is suspected to having been known to the victim. He probably lured the victim to accompany him under some pretext, a Badlapur police station official said.

Police are investigating the exact circumstances under which the boy was kidnapped, according to the PTI.

(with ANI and PTI inputs)