Mumbai Police Arrests 11 For Kidnapping And Selling 4-Month-Old Child

Baby was sold to a childless couple for Rs 4.8 lakh

A complaint filed by a 50-year-old woman identified as Anwari Abdul Shaikh helped the Mumbai Police to arrest a total of 11 people including a Tamil Nadu-based civil engineer, involved in the kidnapping and trafficking of a 4-month-old baby. Reportedly, the baby from Mumbai was sold to a childless couple in Tamil Nadu for Rs 4.8 lakh.

In the thread of events, a four-month-old girl went missing from Girgaum in south Mumbai on December 27, following which Anwari Abdul Shaikh approached police to file a complaint and a probe was launched.

According to a report, Shaikh in her complaint stated that Ibrahim Sheikh (32), who is the child’s father and the main accused in the case, took the infant on the pretext of vaccination on December 27.

However, he did not return with the child and gave vague answers to Anwari's inquiry for the same. Doubting him, Anwari approached the police and registered a complaint about the child’s kidnapping on January 3, following which police took Ibrahim into custody.

During interrogation, Ibrahim told that instead of taking the baby for vaccination, he had taken her to Tamil Nadu, along with four others, where he sold the baby to Anand Kumar Nagarajan, a civil engineer living in Selvanpatti.

He approached his friend Mohamed Sherkhan with the problem, who further introduced Sheikh to another woman identified as Laxmi Deepak Murgesh. Then, they planned to sell the infant to a childless couple in Tamil Nadu.

As per the plan, three others Saddam Shah, Amjad Sheikh and Tahira Sheikh accompanied Ibrahim to Tamil Nadu where they met the other accused, Kartik Rajendra, his wife Chitra, Tamil Thangraj and Murti Sami. The entire group then sold the baby for Rs 4.8 lakh.

Based on Ibramin's interrogation, Mumbai Police raided areas in Sion, Dharavi, Malad Jogeshwari, Nagpada in Mumbai, Kalyan and Thane, which led to the arrest of two women and four men.

As per the reports, after receiving the information that the child had been sold to a childless couple in Tamil Nadu, a team headed by sub-inspectors Dilip Tambe and Rahul Patil went to Tamil Nadu and immediately a search operation was launched in three districts for four days and the remaining accused were arrested from Selvanpatti in Coimbatore.