Toddler's abductors reveal they kidnapped 8 other kids in Thane

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The kidnapping case of a two-year-old boy from Thakurpada in Thane has led the Shildaighar police to a suspected child-trafficking racket. Interrogation of the four accused arrested in the case has revealed that they kidnapped seven to eight children in the past. Though they tried to mislead the cops by saying that they had killed the children and buried their bodies at a spot between Shildaighar and Mahape areas, the cops realised that it was a lie when they failed to recover anything from the site.

According to the police, the main accused - 20-year-old Afreen Munna Khan - who fled with the boy on March 31, initially went to the Mumbra railway station. The child was her neighbour's son.

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Speaking on condition of anonymity, a police officer said, "Afreen lured the boy with chips. Some neighbours spotted her taking away the kid. When she didn't return, his mother registered a complaint, following which a kidnapping case was filed. On April 1, we caught Afreen from near the Mumbra police station and rescued the child the same day. The boy was later handed over to his mother. However, during investigation we found Afreen's mother, uncle and aunt were involved in the case too."

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They have been identified as her mother Mubina Firoz Shah, aunt Amira Azim Divekar and uncle Azim Ibrahim Divekar. All of them hail from Kanpur, and have been staying in Mumbra for the past two months.

The officer further said, "We suspect that the four of them are involved in human-trafficking, as they have kidnapped seven to eight children. During interrogation they said that they had killed the children and buried their bodies. On Tuesday when we dug up the spot with the help of a JCB machine, we found nothing. When questioned for the second time, they revealed that they were trying to mislead us. We are trying to trace the children."

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