Taunted for not having baby, couple abduct kid

Noida: A couple, taunted by family members for remaining childless even after eight years of marriage, abducted a six-year-old boy from outside his home on July 9.
Sandeep and Pinky, who provide services like physiotherapy in private hospitals, had taken the boy, Utkarsh, to Lucknow and kept him as their own child.
They were identified from CCTV footage, where Sandeep can be seen picking up Utkarsh in his arms and disappearing into the darkness along with Pinky.
Utkarsh is the son of Naren Rathore, a vegetable-seller, and Sunita, who stay in a rented house in Gajhera village in Sector 53. The boy was playing outside his home on July 9 but his parents could not find him after 7pm.
“We searched for him in every lane but couldn’t find him. We lodged a complaint with police. Since there were a few cameras installed in houses near which my son was playing, we requested the owners to show us the footage. In one of the footage, a man and a woman could clearly be seen lifting my son and running away,” Naren said.
The family also alleged delay on the part of police to lodge a complaint. Naren said his complaint was registered only after he approached the Child Welfare Committee (CWC).
On Sunday, Utkarsh was recovered from a room in Lucknow. Sandeep and Pinky were arrested from the spot by a Star I team. Sandeep’s elder brother Pradeep, who is a priest in a temple in Sector 53, was also arrested since the room where the couple had taken refuge belonged to him.
A desolate Pinky said she had repeatedly asked Sandeep not to kidnap the child.
“I had told him that we could adopt a child instead, but he did not listen,” she said.
Sandeep told TOI his was frustrated with the repeated taunts by his family members for not having a child even after eight years of marriage. “I did it under the influence of alcohol,” he claimed.
A crime branch officer said the couple had taken Utkarsh to Lucknow in a bus and given him milk in the room. Sandeep had scolded the kid only once, when he pleaded that he be sent to his mother, the officer said.
“He apparently hit him and told him that Pinky was his mother now,” he said. Somewhat perturbed by over 500km journey from Lucknow to Noida, Utkarsh smiled as reporters asked him to pose with his parents.