The Thane Police Crime Branch has arrested a 20-year-old man from Gujarat who travelled to Ulhasnagar and kidnapped the three-year-old nephew of a woman, who had spurned his advances. The police nabbed the accused and rescued the boy within 20 hours of the abduction.
The Thane Crime Branch said Bhavesh Singh (3), who was playing outside his house near Vitthalwadi railway station, went missing on Thursday afternoon and his parents filed a kidnapping complaint against unknown persons at the Vitthalwadi police station. The Thane Crime Branch’s Unit V was asked to conduct parallel investigations into the case.
An officer said, “We made inquiries with family members and asked if anyone had a motive to kidnap Bhavesh. They told us that a 20-year-old man had been harassing Bhavesh’s aunt, who was visiting the family from Gujarat. The man lived in her locality and stalked her. Acting on the information, we called the woman for inquiries on Friday morning.”
The officer said the woman broke down after entering the Unit V office. She told the police that the accused, identified as Surajsingh Darasingh, called her on Friday morning and told her to meet him alone at Vikhroli station if she wanted to see her nephew alive.
The officer said, “We formed several teams of male and female personnel in plainclothes and asked them to shadow the woman. When the accused called again, he asked the woman where she had reached. She told him that she was in an autorickshaw and on her way to meet him. He then asked her to hand the cell phone over to the auto driver. She gave the phone to one of our personnel and he assured the accused that the woman wasn’t lying.”
The accused then grew suspicious and asked the woman to meet him at Kurla station. When she was on her way to Kurla, he called again and told her to meet him at Thane station. The Unit V team was monitoring all the calls and additional personnel reached Thane station and took positions before the woman arrived.
The officer said, “The accused was taken into custody when he showed up and the boy was rescued. He was arrested and handed over to the Vitthalwadi police. During interrogation, the accused said he lured Bhavesh by offering him sweets and kept him at a friend’s place. We are trying to find out if the friend had any knowledge of the kidnapping.”