Kalwa police arrested a 65-year-old woman for allegedly kidnapping a five-year-old boy from Kalwa slum area on May 14 with the aim of selling him.
Police, who didn’t have any clue about the accused, rescued the boy within 48 hours of the incident.
On May 14, Aditya Prasad was playing with his friends at around 10pm outside his residence at Mafatlal slum area in Shantinagar, Kalwa. When the boy did not return till late, his mother, Babita Prasad, 30, looked for him in the neighbourhood and immediately reached the Kalwa police station to file a complaint.
Senior police inspector of Kalwa, M Awhad, said, “We immediately formed a team to look for the boy. We looked for him in all the lanes and bylanes, and also checked the CCTV footage in the area and other areas in Kalwa. We, however, could not locate the woman as she had not used any of the usual routes. So, our team talked to every rickshaw driver, shops and informants after which we came to know that someone had seen an elderly woman with the five-year-old boy.”
The woman used to live in the Shivaji Nagar area of Kalwa. “We got her number through some persons known to her and traced her location. The accused, Usha Salve, was nabbed from Ghodbunder area.
During interrogation, the woman initially refused to give any information but later accepted that she kidnapped the boy and kept him at her relatives place with the intention of selling him. After rescuing him, Kalwa police handed him over to his family.