5-year-old girl kidnapped near Mumbai rescued within 12 hours: police

Police said the girl had been reunited with her parents after undergoing a medical examination (representative)

Mumbai:

Police swung into action to rescue a 5-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped by two women in the Mumbai suburb of Bhandup with the intention of selling her just 12 hours after the incident, an official said on Monday.

He said four women, two of whom were directly involved in the kidnapping, were arrested in Barkum area adjoining Thane city and the girls were later reunited with their families.

The accused women planned to sell the girls for financial gain. The official said the child was held with two of the four women, both of whom lived in Thane, after being kidnapped in Mumbai.

The incident took place on Sunday night when the girl went out to buy balloons to celebrate Holi. He said when she didn’t come home until late at night, her parents became worried and began a frantic search for their daughter.

Some residents of Bhandup suburb saw the girl traveling in an auto-rickshaw with two women. One of them, later identified as Khushboo Gupta, lived at the same location, the official said.

The girl’s parents reported the matter to Bhandup police station and accordingly a case of kidnapping was registered.

Police launched a search and arrested Gupta. During interrogation, she admitted to abducting the girl with another woman, Maina Dillod, promising to buy her a chocolate and take her to Tarn, the official said.

The girl was taken to Barkum in Thane city and kept with two other women. As a result, police teams conducted searches in Balkum on Monday morning and rescued the girl just 12 hours after she was abducted, he said.

The police arrested two Thane women, Divya Singh and Payal Shah, for their involvement in the entire kidnapping incident, the official said.

After a medical examination, the girl was reunited with her parents.

The arrested woman has been produced in court and is in police custody until Friday, the official added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)