A 22-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly abducting two boys aged 8 and 10 in order to force their mother into leaving her husband and marrying him.
The siblings were rescued on Thursday from Loni in Ghaziabad.
Zakir alias Raja, a fruit seller, had allegedly abducted the kids on Tuesday from near their residence.
Accused known to kids
“Our mama [maternal uncle] had taken us to Loni and fed us dal-chawal,” said the eight-year-old while establishing that they knew Zakir well.
The father of the children said he had suspected Zakir of abducting the kids as they had gotten into arguments before.
The police said the accused had met the children’s mother around 18 months ago when he gave a missed call on her phone.
“After the missed call, the two started talking to each other. He wanted her to leave her husband and marry him, but when she rejected him, he abducted the children. After the abduction, he called her and told her that he would let the kids go if she married him,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (north-west) Ajit Kumar Singla.
Past quarrels
The children’s father denied any romantic relationship between his wife and the accused.
“We are daily wage labourers and wherever we work we have to give our phone numbers. That’s how he got my wife’s phone number,” said the father, adding that Zakir used to often come home but later they told him to stop bothering them. He refused to divulge the reasons of doing so.
The police said it had been difficult to track the accused as all the information he had given to the victims’ family was fake.
“He gave his name as Raja, but his real name is Zakir. The address he gave was in Bhajanpura, which was found to be fake. He used 14 mobile numbers and they were all on fake IDs,” said a senior police officer.
The boys were rescued on Thursday after the police received a tip-off.
The accused, however, managed to flee.
The police were eventually able to trace Zakir through his posts on social media. “Though he is illiterate, he was very active on Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger. He was traced with the help of technical surveillance,” said Mr. Singla.
Baby abducted
In another incident, a month-old boy was allegedly abducted by his distant relative from his residence in Sunder Nagri on Thursday.
Around 4 a.m., the mother saw the accused, identified as Sumit, taking away the child.
When she started screaming, he left the baby on the street and fled.
The accused was arrested within 20 hours after his suspected hideouts were raided.
“During interrogation, he said he was a drug addict and wanted to sell the baby to meet his daily needs of drugs,” said Mr. Singla.
The police said the accused is a daily wage labourer.