MUMBAI: Throwing open their home to a woman who had been rendered jobless during the pandemic cost a Malad couple dearly. The 23-year-old woman, whom the couple offered shelter and shared meals with, kidnapped their one-year-old baby girl. After a 48-hour hunt, police managed to track her down to an apartment in Thane on Friday evening even as she was planning to leave the state with the infant.
The accused, Sapna Nayak, was childless, but had told her family back home in Odisha that she had a one-year-old infant. Desperate for a baby, she found an opportunity at Pooja and Ashok Rathod’s home in Malad. “Sapna worked as a housemaid in a building where my husband runs a tailoring shop. She used to come to his shop with her employer’s clothes and would frequently complain of being ill-treated by her employer,” Pooja told TOI. Last week, Sapna told Ashok she had quit her job and needed shelter for a night so she could look for work elsewhere. “I refused because we live with my mother-in-law and cannot have people staying over. But eventually, we took pity on her and allowed her to come to our place,” said Pooja.
Nayak moved in on January 5. She helped the family with chores, played with the two children and bought them chocolates. Around 6.30pm on January 6, she vanished with the infant. The Rathods rushed to the police, but sleuths found Nayak’s phone switched off.
Over the next two days, police scanned CCTV footage and checked every train headed to Odisha. “We checked public lavatories as well,” said detection officer Hasan Mulani.
Nayak would switch her phone on for a few minutes, but every time, her location was different. Police teams looked for her at Kalyan, Kasara, Mumbra, CST and Thane. They also quizzed her ex-employer who revealed that Nayak was well-versed in English and would often Google about fertility issues.
“Through technical surveillance, we tracked her down to Hiranandani Complex in Thane where she had pleaded with another couple to let her and the baby stay over for a day,” said inspector Arjun Rajane.
She had stayed back as she had been unable to book a train ticket for her hometown. Investigations have revealed she had come to Mumbai two years ago and was pregnant at the time. But she lost the baby and did not have the nerve to tell her family. She has told the police her husband had warned her against returning to their village without a child.