Delhi Police rescues three-year-old kidnapped by beggar family, arrests three

New Delhi, Jan 18 (PTI) Delhi Police foiled a child trafficking bid and rescued a three-year-old girl kidnapped from Kashmere Gate area by a beggar family, who planned to smuggle her to Nepal, an official said on Sunday.

The child has been reunited with her father, a widower, he said.

Three members of the beggar family were arrested in connection with the case and two minor members involved in begging were rescued, he added.

According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Raja Banthia, the child was rescued after four days of operations that involved scanning of CCTV cameras, intense technical surveillance and ground searches.

He said the incident came to light on January 12 when the child's father Mujaffar Ali filed a complaint at the Kashmere Gate police station.

The complainant, whose wife had passed away, said he used to bring his three-year-old to his workplace, a shop on Minerva Cinema Road. Around 6.30 pm on Monday, the child went missing from the shop premises.

"Treating the matter with utmost urgency, police registered a kidnapping case and launched an intensive search to trace the missing child. A police team immediately began a systematic scanning of CCTV footage from areas in and around Ali's shop," the DCP said.

One footage showed the child being lured by a minor girl aged around seven years towards the Old Delhi Railway Station. Another footage from the railway station revealed that the minor girl handed over the child to her family members present there, after which the group vanished into the crowd.

With no further clues available, multiple teams comprising around 100 personnel were deployed to comb Old Delhi Railway Station and nearby stations such as Subzi Mandi, Shahdara and Sahibabad.

"Platforms, circulating areas, foot over bridges, railway tracks, waiting halls and surrounding locations were searched. Parallelly, around CCTV cameras installed at railway stations and on approach roads were scanned. During this process, police got a fleeting but crucial visual of the suspected family travelling in an e-rickshaw from the Old Iron Bridge side. Though the clue was limited, police pursued it and traced the suspects' possible movement for nearly 12 kilometres, ending at Welcome area," DCP Banthia said.

Police personnel were discreetly deployed at Welcome area overnight, while more information was being gathered through local inquiries and verification of habitual movements.

The efforts led to a breakthrough on Saturday, when the kidnapped child was traced and rescued near Hanuman Mandir at Yamuna Bazar. She was found in the custody of a family involved in begging.

Three people, identified as Nazeema (52), her husband Anis alias Niras (52), and their son-in-law Shamshad Alam (26), all natives of Bihar's Kishanganj and residing at Janta Mazdoor Colony in Welcome area, were arrested. Two minors -- aged seven and 10 and were part of the family -- were rescued.

"During interrogation, the accused disclosed that they routinely visited crowded markets and religious places for begging. On Monday, they noticed the child playing alone near the exit gate of Old Delhi Railway Station and instructed one of the minor family members to bring her to the station, from where she was kidnapped. The family also changed their rented accommodation the same night to evade detection," the DCP said.

Further questioning revealed that the accused had planned to traffick the child to Nepal. They were exploring options to sell her to a childless couple, a begging syndicate or for organ trafficking, depending on the profit, he added. PTI BM RUK RUK