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Two arrested for abducting infant

Staff Reporter

Incident occurred in slums of Narela

NEW DELHI: A quack and his associate have been arrested by the North-West Delhi police for allegedly kidnapping a 17-day-old infant from the slums of Narela and selling him for Rs. 2.9 lakhs. The police have rescued the child and also recovered the sale proceeds from the accused.

According to the police, Gopal, a resident of JJ Colony in Narela, had lodged a complaint saying that his 17-day-old son had gone missing from his jhuggi in the early hours of October 20. The Narela police registered a case and took up investigations.

The breakthrough came when on October 22 the Kharkhoda police at Sonepat in Haryana received a call from Kaushik Chakravarti, a quack in the area, saying that a drunken man had left his 17-day-old son with him. As the Narela police had issued a hue and cry notice, the Kharkhoda police got in touch with them.

The Narela police then interrogated Kaushik at length following which he allegedly confessed to having kidnapped the child with the help of his acciomplice, Mohammad Raja, to sell it to a woman for Rs. 2.9 lakhs. At his instance, the police arrested Raja. The police also recovered Rs. 2.9 lakhs from Kaushik who had allegedly received the money from the woman in advance.

The police said Kaushik had been treating the woman, a resident of Hisar in Haryana. With her husband and only son murdered 18 months ago, she wanted to have a son.

Kaushik allegedly agreed to arrange a male infant for her in lieu of a huge amount. He asked Raja to look for such a child. Raja, a resident of JJ Colony in Bawana, came to know through his contacts that Gopal's wife had given birth to a boy a fortnight ago and decided to steal him. In the early hours of October 20, he allegedly stole Gopal's son and handed him over to Kaushik. He received Rs. 10,000 for his job.

While Kaushik had already accepted the money, he could not deliver the child to the woman as she fell ill and was not able to contact him. Kaushik then got worried and decided to call the police and mislead them with a concocted story. Further investigations in the case are on.

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