22 March,2015 02:45 PM IST | | Sailee Dhayalkar
Childless couple hatches plan to steal three-month-old after mother refuses to give up the daughter for adoption
On Friday, the Deonar police arrested three accused - identified as Wahid Ali Shaikh, 30, Jishan Khan, 25, and Mobin Qureshi, 42 - for allegedly kidnapping a three-month-old girl from Vile Parle last month.
The incident
One of the accused, Mobin, knew 19-year-old Soni Salman Shaikh, the mother of the three-month-old kidnapped girl Falak, as they were both scrap dealers. When he found out that Wahid Shaikh and his wife Shehnaz wanted to adopt a baby, he told them about a baby in his vicinity.
On February 13, Shenaz - who is still absconding - went to Soni's house in Dr Zakir Huss-ain Nagar, Govandi and asked her whether she would give up her daughter for adoption.
When Soni refused, the trio, along with Khan, hatched a plan to steal the baby. A source, on condition of anonymity said that Wahid and Shehnaz decided to steal the baby as they had been unable to conceive for the past 15 years. On February 17, Shehnaz visited Soni again and told her about a man who wanted to marry her. Soni, who was living with her grandmother as her estranged husband was an alcoholic, agreed to go along with her daughter to Haji Ali.
Here Jishan joined them. Soni assumed he was the one who wanted to marry her, and they went to Haji Ali, where they offered prayers and ate at a nearby stall, after which they took a train to Vile Parle station from Mahalak-shmi. A rickshaw driver came to pick them at this point and Soni suspected something was fishy when they gave her Rs 100 to buy water. When she returned to the spot, the trio had driven away with Falak.
Soni lodged a complaint at Vile Parle police station, which was transferred to Deonar police station. Assistant police Inspector Anil Gaikwad said, "Quereshi led us to Jishan and Wahid. When our team went to arrest Wahid in Kherani Road in Saki Naka, they found Falak with him. Wahid had driven the rickshaw in which they kidnapped her.
The CCTV footage at Mahalakshmi station shows Soni, Jishan and Shehnaz taking a train." A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code Sections 363 and 34. They were presented in Holiday court yesterday and taken into police custody.
