Mumbai: Woman, 20, leaves toddler at Borivli station; arrested from Bhayander

Representative image

A woman in her 20s was arrested for allegedly abandoning her one-and-a-half-year-old child at Borivli railway station.

Police sources said that the child, a girl, was found on platform No. 2 of the Borivli station on September 4. Initially, authorities suspected that the infant belonged to a flower vendor, however, after no one claimed the child or filed a missing complaint, the police registered a case against an unidentified woman and began their investigation, the sources added.

The woman was arrested from Bhayander, said the police, adding that the infant had been sent to a local ashram in Borivli for care.

5 Special Janmashtami delicacies

2 months agoWEBSTORY

Under the guidance of Sandeep Bhajibhakre, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), and senior inspector Datt Khupekar, Borivli woman police sub-inspector Ashwini Dhapse, along with the Government Railway Police (GRP), Borivali, began the investigation.

During the investigation, it was found out that the woman, who hailed from Bihar, was living with her relative in Bhayandar, and she had left her husband on the day of the alleged incident.

Police said the CCTV footage from the station revealed a young woman in her 20s wandering the Borivli station with the infant. As per the footage, she left the child on platform No 2 at around 2.14 pm and boarded a local train.

Dhapse shared the CCTV footage screenshots with different police official groups, including the city police. Based on the footage, the Mumbai police crime branch apprehended the woman from the Bhayandar area on September 14 and handed her over to the Borivli GRP for further investigation.

The police said they scrutinised several CCTV footage, which revealed that the woman first came to the Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) and later was seen with an unidentified man at the Khar Road station.

Further investigation revealed that the woman and the child were seen with a man at Khar railway station. An officer from the crime branch identified the man and took him into custody for questioning. Police said the man was an autorickshaw driver who had dropped the woman and the child at Khar station from LTT.

She had not paid the driver in full and had given her mobile number to the man. Using the phone number, the crime branch traced the woman to Bhayandar and took her into custody 10 days after the incident, on September 14, where she confessed to leaving the child at Borivli station.

The motive for abandoning her kid is not yet clear, said the police.