Mumbai: A 25-year-old man was arrested within eight hours for allegedly kidnapping a 4-year-old boy from Virar railway station. The accused, identified as Shamshad alias Asif Mansoor Pathan, was picked up from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) when he was about to board a train to his hometown in Bihar.
Preliminary investigation has revealed that Pathan came to Mumbai from Muzaffarpur, Bihar, a few days back and was staying in Virar.
As per the police, the 35-year-old mother, Mangal Yadav and the child were sitting at Virar railway station on Sunday afternoon when Pathan approached them and started interacting with her. Police officials added that the accused bought her two vada pav and a bottle of water at 1.30pm and when the woman dozed off, Pathan took her child and boarded a train to Dadar at 2.30pm.
“He got off at Dadar and went to the Central Railway and took a train to CSMT where he was waiting for a long-distance train for Bihar,” said senior police inspector Sachin Ingavle of the Vasai GRP. “When the woman woke up and did not find her son around, she approached the GRP and a police team started searching for the boy.”
“We checked CCTV footage of Virar station and noticed that the accused had taken the boy with him. We alerted all major railway stations, suspecting that he will take a train to flee from the city,” said Ingavle. He added that the GRP officials then checked all the CCTV footage and finally found that the accused had boarded another train from Dadar to CSMT.
“We circulated his grabs to GRP officials at all stations. Pathan was nabbed around 11pm on Sunday,” said Ingavle. “The boy was rescued and handed over to his mother.”