Minor kidnapped & sold thrice, recovered in UP

Bulandshahr: In a bizarre incident, a four-year-old boy was sold thrice after being kidnapped from Delhi last week. He was finally rescued by the police earlier this week from Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh.

According to reports, the boy was kidnapped while playing outside his home in north Delhi’s Bhalswa Dairy.

The boy was allegedly kidnapped at the behest of a couple who paid Rs 4.5 lakh for the child. The couple had wanted a healthy child since their own 18-year-old son is physically challenged.

The police said that the boy lives with his parents in Bhalswa Dairy. His father does odd jobs while his mother is a homemaker.

On January 31, he was playing outside his home when he went missing. His mother approached the police after which a kidnapping case was registered and the investigators began scanning CCTV footage, said DCP Gaurav Sharma (outer north district).

“Footage from one of the cameras showed a woman taking away the child. We identified her as 28-year-old Rummy, who lives in the same neighbourhood, the DCP said.

Rummy told police she kidnapped the child at the behest of a man, Kapil, who lives in Hapur.

The police arrested Kapil and his wife and they said that they had sold the child to a man on whose demand they had outsourced the work to Rummy.

Kapil had been paid Rs 70,000 for this work, police said.

The middleman is absconding.

Following the chain of events, the police reached another couple in Bulandshahr and this couple had purchased the child for Rs 4.5 lakh. The husband is absconding while the wife, Sunita, has been arrested and the four-year-old rescued.

“Whether this couple asked the middleman to kidnap a child or arrange one by other means will be confirmed when we arrest the two absconding suspects. This also could be a major child-lifting racket,” said an investigating official.

IANS