Mumbai: One-day-old, toddler among 487 rescued kids

Mumbai CP Vivek Phansalkar hands over Fatima Shaikh to her family on Thursday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Under the Operation Reunite, the Mumbai police have rescued 487 missing or abducted children in 45 days, from August 15 to September 30, and even reunited many of them with their family. Of the 487 children the Mumbai police have rescued, 257 are girls and 230 boys, announced Commissioner of Police (CP) Vivek Phansalkar who had launched the operation.

According to the Mumbai police's data, missing person complaints were filed for 68 boys and 135 girls who were traced and reunited with their family. Besides, 154 boys and 122 girls rescued were not on the record of missing people. Eight child labourers were also among the 487 children rescued. The Mumbai police have not released the data from beyond September 30, but mentioned about only two children abducted recently - a one-year-old girl and a one-day-old baby.

Addressing the media on Thursday, Phansalkar talked about a one-year-old girl, Fatima Shaikh, who was kidnapped from the footpath near SNDT college on October 30. He handed over the child to her parents at the press conference. Giving details about the case, he said, "An FIR was registered and Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection 1) Sangramsingh Nishandar formed two teams that worked on different aspects and gathered technical evidence. Based on the evidence, two women were apprehended at Solapur railway station."

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Officers from the Unit 9 of crime branch, which worked on the case, said the two women arrested with the help of Railway Protection Force (RPF) are Sharifa alias Kajal Shaikh, 50, and Sujata Pawan, 43. They are residents of Vile Parle. They were captured on the CCTV camera kidnapping the girl, cops added. "One informant confirmed to us that the two women seen kidnapping the baby live in the same area as the girl, and accordingly, the rescue operation was launched," Phansalkar said.

The crime branch officers said they also learnt that Sharifa, the main accused, did a recce of the place and knew that the mother goes to work after leaving the child on the footpath. "The women then travelled to Telangana, with the plan to sell the baby there, but their deal fell through. They were travelling towards Mumbai and we had her location. We apprehended them in Solapur, because we suspected that she may go somewhere else instead of coming back to Mumbai," an officer said.

Last week, the Azad Maidan police rescued a one-day-old baby and arrested a Wadala-based couple. They later arrested a third accused who had previously worked with Sion hospital as a ward boy.