Palghar: An eight-month-old girl was reunited with her mother within eight hours after she went missing on Friday. The child was allegedly kidnapped by one Kishore Dagle (30) on Friday afternoon in Boisar.
Dagle allegedly wanted to sell the baby to a childless couple when he was arrested by Yogesh Tare, a Home Guard who nabbed him near Kumbhavli, Boisar after photos of the minor were shared on a Whatsapp group comprising of Home Guards.
The girl was sleeping in a makeshift creche under a railway bridge in Boisar when she was taken.
Her parents Varsha and Kanhaiya Damor who hail from Madhya Pradesh both work as labourers on railway projects on the tracks.
While her parents were at work, another labourer informed Varsha that her baby was missing from her creche.
Since it was impossible for the girl to crawl out of the creche, the mother filed a complaint with us, said Sr PI Naresh Randhir of Palghar Government Railway Police (GRP).
We registered a case of kidnapping under Section 363 of IPC and began the probe, he said.
We formed three police teams and as there were no CCTV cameras on platforms between Dahanu to Vaitarna we had no clue initially, said Randhir.
After the Home Guards shared the photo of the girl on their WhatsApp group, Tare saw the accused with the girl in her arms near Kumbhavli. Tare hauled Dagle to us and Varsha identified her daughter, subsequently, Dagle was arrested, said Randhir.
“The accused, a resident of Kelwe, is jobless and was drunk at the time of the arrest. He was planning to sell the kid to a childless couple to fund his drinking vice,” police said.
The accused was remanded in police custody by the Palghar court on Saturday, said Randhir, adding that further investigation is on.