Gujarat: Abducted twice in 2 months, baby gets protection

AHMEDABAD: Cops will be deployed round the clock to protect him. Abducted twice in two months, he's neither a politician nor a celebrity. Instead, he is a two-month-old baby from Adalaj in Gandhinagar – possibly the youngest person in Gujarat who will get 24x7 police protection.
The child, whose parents stay in slums near Adalaj Trimandir, was first abducted in April when he was just two days old. He was rescued from his kidnappers, only to be snatched again by another pair of kidnappers on June 5.
In both the kidnapping bids, the abductors were childless couples who wanted to complete their families with a child.
Due to the double kidnapping, the police have decided to create a special point near the slums and deploy a team round the clock. Apart from this, the police officers are also thinking of giving the parents, who collect waste for a living, a permanent abode so that the child is not vulnerable to abductors.
H P Jhala, inspector with the local crime branch in Gandhinagar, said, “We have been trying to find some decent jobs and a house for the boy’s parents so that they can live safely.”
Detailing the arrangements being made, an LCB officer said, “We will monitor the boy and his parents whether they are at home or at work. The kid’s mother has been given the contact number of a few cops so that she can call for help in case there’s no policeman around her during an emergency.”
Another cop added, “There are many such vulnerable kids who live on the footpath or roadside with their parents. They are easy targets for kidnappers. Taking a lesson from this case, we may extend similar protection to other vulnerable kids.”
The child was first abducted when he was just two days old from Banaskantha by Jignesh and Asmita Bharti from Kadi in Mehsana district in April. The childless couple made off with the child from Gandhinagar Civil Hospital. The Gandhinagar LCB tracked them and rescued the child within a week.
Then, the baby was abducted from Banaswada on June 5; this time, by a childless couple again. Accused, Dinesh and Sudha Katara, did not have a child even after seven years of marriage. So, when Dinesh saw the mother keeping her child in a makeshift cradle on her bicycle while she collected waste, he swooped down on his motorcycle and carried the child away. The LCB took around four days and analyzed footage from over 700 CCTV cameras in Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Arvalli and Sabarkantha districts of Gujarat and Banswada district of Rajasthan to track and rescue the child.