AGRA: The police in Aligarh have arrested two youths for allegedly abducting two toddlers from two different places in the city and later selling them to childless couples. Both the children have been rescued, one from Moradabad and the other from Delhi, and handed over to their parents. The police also arrested two persons on the charges of purchasing the children.
Police said two minor children were allegedly abducted by two youths -- identified as Sher Mohammad, 23, and Shahrukh, 21, -- from two different places in Aligarh within a span of five months. The first FIR was registered for the kidnapping of two-and-half-year-old Aayan on October 6, 2020, and the second FIR was lodged with the same charges after the disappearance of two-and-a-half-year-old Shoib on March 12 this year.
Aayan was sold to a resident of Moradabad, identified as Ehsan, for Rs 60,000. The accused got bolder when the law could not catch them and they planned another kidnapping to earn more money. This time they decided to sell the child, Shoib, for Rs 70,000 to one Rukhsana, a resident of Bijnor who is relative of Ehsan.
Explaining the link between the abductors and the purchasers of the abducted children, circle officer (Civil Lines) Anil Samaniya told TOI that Rukhsana, who was taking fertility treatment at a private hospital, met Shahrukh’s relative who works as a sanitation worker at the centre and she introduced the two for getting them a child from some orphanage.
Without enquiring much, Rukhsana told her relative Ehsan about it as they were also childless. Ehsan then bought Aayan from Shahrukh, who told the couple that the papers from the orphanage home would be provided later.
After a few months, Shahrukh and Sher Mohammad sold Shoib to Rukhsana. Rukhsana took the child to her parents’ house in Delhi from where he was rescued by the police.
Samaniya said Sher Mohammad and Shahrukh have been booked under sections 363 and 370 (4) of IPC while Rukhsana and Ehsan were booked under section 368 of IPC at Kawarsi police station.