Five men snatch baby at Z-Bridge, cops say the same men had offered to buy boy from his mother a few days ago

2-month-old was with his homeless family at the time, around 2 am on Wednesday

In an alarming case of kidnapping, a two-month-old baby was snatched from his impoverished, homeless family, while they all slept on the Shaniwar Peth side of the Z-Bridge, in the wee hours on Wednesday.

Around 15 hours after he was snatched, as of Wednesday night, Deccan Gymkhana police were yet to find the missing child, while his mother Rangeela Chand lamented his absence, telling Mirror, “I breastfed my child at least seven times a day. Now, this mother’s milk is simply going waste, and I do not even know if my baby is hungry or well taken care off.”

Rohit Chand is the firstborn of Rangeela and Chand Chavan, who are migrant footpath balloon sellers. According to the complaint filed in this case, the family was sleeping around 2 am, when five men — who spoke fluent Marathi — came to them on different vehicles from the Shaniwar Peth side and took the child away. The panic-stricken family, including Rangeela, her aunt and mother gave them an unsuccessful chase before rushing to the cops.

According to police officials, the same group of men had earlier come to the mother and forced her to sell the child.

“These men were dressed like and speak like goondas. They came a week ago and declared that one of them has no child despite being married for years. They wanted to buy my baby and said they would feed and bring him up much better than we could ever manage. We told them that if you want to take away our food, we wouldn’t mind — but don’t even come close to the child,” said a griefstricken Rangeela, adding, “Though we do not stay at a particular place for several years, we have been in Pune for long and speak Marathi. My son needs to be fed often and I am worried, as it has been over half a day since he ate in my arms. My husband has gone with a police team in search of our child, and this is the most unfortunate day of our lives.”

Sources said that though some closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage of the incident was acquired, the image quality was on the lower side.

The yet-to-be-identified accused have been booked under section 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act.

“We have secured some visuals and based on this and the description by the family, we are preparing the sketches of the accused. Meanwhile, our teams have already fanned out across the city to rescue the boy,” said senior police inspector Deepak Lagad of Deccan police station.