It was early morning on January 21. The flurry of exercise at New Delhi Railway Station was but to start. The calm was punctuated by a 30-year-old lady, in dishevelled clothes, sobbing as she ran in circles on Platform 1. “Somebody stole my baby… somebody stole my baby,” she cried, pleading for assist. Her four-month-old child lady was lacking.
She knew all the premises of the railway station very effectively. She labored right here, promoting pens, every single day. She additionally lived contained in the station. She stored looking until midday. She was exhausted. Her older daughter, aged seven, held her hand as she sat in a nook.
She lastly determined to go to the police. She knew there was a police station on the premises.
This lady had come to the Capital from a village in Bihar. She didn’t have a spot to remain and lived contained in the railway station, sleeping within the ready corridor or every other nook. She was married and had two kids – a boy and a lady — when she arrived in Delhi. Her son, now a 14-year-old, is in a de-addiction centre whereas her daughter accompanies her.
4 months in the past, she advised police, she gave delivery to a child lady, days after her husband had died. Subsequently, she mentioned, she married a person who works in a tea stall at Outdated Delhi Railway Station.
“At 7 pm (on January 20), I went to the ready corridor on Platform 1 together with my two daughters. We ate there, and round 1 am, I slept. My daughters have been already asleep. Round 5 am, I awoke and noticed that my four-month-old daughter wasn’t there. I regarded round for her however couldn’t discover her,” the girl advised police.
The case was taken up by Inspector Vijay Samaria. Step one was to scan footage from CCTV cameras across the ready corridor.
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“We noticed a girl holding a child within the footage,” Inspector Samaria mentioned. “Once we regarded on the footage once more, we have been startled. The lady’s gait matched the kidnapper in one other case the place a two-and-a-half-year-old boy was taken from the railway station. There was one other hanging similarity. In each instances, the girl kidnapper had gone to Badarpur (bordering Haryana) in an auto-rickshaw.”
Inspector Samaria was speaking a few case that his police station had registered final October and was but to be solved. A 24-year-old lady from Prayagraj (UP) was on her approach to Punjab seeking work. Her husband, she advised police, had deserted her and her baby a 12 months in the past. Her two-and-a-half-year-old son was accompanying her. She laid a blanket on the ground close to the reservation counter and slept, her son mendacity subsequent to her. “Once I awoke, my son was not there,” she advised police.
At the moment, CCTV footage had proven a girl kidnapping the kid and entering into an auto rickshaw. Police traced the automobile to its last vacation spot — Badarpur. As soon as the girl acquired out, she vanished. Police had picked up the auto-rickshaw driver however he didn’t know something.
This time round, when police discovered that the identical lady was concerned in one other kidnapping case, senior officers acquired concerned. “We suspected that these two kidnappings are linked and are half of a bigger racket,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
“And it was certainly a bigger baby trafficking racket”.
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In line with the police information, there have been 11,869 kidnapping/abduction instances of youngsters in Delhi within the final three years: 3,948 instances in 2024, 3,974 instances in 2023 and three,947 instances in 2022. Information exhibits that 18,246 kids have been reported lacking within the final three years. In 80% of the instances, police mentioned, these kids have been traced and reunited with their households.
How the case was cracked
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Railways, KPS Malhotra, fashioned a group comprising ACP Sanjeev Chahar and Inspectors Samaria and Vishwanath Paswan to deal with the case. He requested the group to rope within the policemen concerned in probing the sooner case (of October 17, 2024) the place the path had gone chilly.
“The auto-rickshaw that had taken the girl to Badarpur was recognized. This time, too, the motive force didn’t know a factor. However he gave us a chunk of knowledge that proved vital,” Inspector Paswan mentioned. “He advised us that as they acquired near Badarpur, the girl referred to as somebody on the cellphone and requested the particular person on the opposite finish to come back and choose them up.”
Police requested the auto-rickshaw driver to indicate them the precise spot the place he had dropped the kidnapper. “In earlier instances, too, we had recognized the place the place the autorickshaw had dropped her off. Then we matched knowledge dump from the 2 spots and scanned each quantity that was lively at that specific time,” Inspector Paswan mentioned.
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“One IMEI (Worldwide Cellular Gear Id) quantity popped up twice however with two totally different cellphone numbers. This implies the handset used was the identical even because the consumer modified the quantity.”
Police then scanned name element information of each numbers. “Each have been discovered lively on the crime scene… inside New Delhi Railway Station,” Inspector Paswan mentioned.
Lastly, the kidnapper’s identification was established: 35-year-old Aarti. Police traced her to a home in Faridabad, the place she lived together with her husband Suraj. She wasn’t house. Police began monitoring Aarti’s cellphone.
“It was traced to the Maha Kumbh mela, and as luck would have it, her cellphone was all of the sudden switched off,” Inspector Samaria mentioned. “This was precisely the time when there was a stampede there… once we couldn’t hint her cellphone, we thought she could have been a sufferer (of the stampede).”
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Police, nonetheless, scanned via her name particulars information and zeroed in on a few numbers she was always in contact with earlier than her cellphone was switched off. These numbers have been lively in Faridabad. “We referred to as one of many numbers and took the particular person into confidence… he advised us Aarti was alive and her cellphone was stolen in Kumbh,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
Quickly, the police picked up Aarti and Suraj.
Aarti, who’s from Bardhhaman district in West Bengal, advised police she had married a person named Shakoor 17 years in the past and so they had two sons. They have been collectively for seven years earlier than they separated. She left her kids together with her first husband after the divorce and moved to Faridabad with an “acquaintance”.
In 2017, she married Suraj, a resident of UP’s Badaun district, who’s a every day wage labourer. They’ve two kids — a six-year-old son and a 15-month-old boy — she advised police. Earlier than she married Suraj, she advised police, she glided by the identify Rajina. “My identify was modified by the priest throughout our wedding ceremony ceremony,” she advised police.
In line with police, Aarti advised them that two years in the past, she met a girl named Priya in Faridabad. “She mentioned she was a health care provider and ran her personal clinic… and knew a number of childless {couples} who’re able to pay a good-looking quantity to undertake a baby… she additionally advised me she is aware of a number of gangs who steal kids and intentionally break their limbs and make them beg,” Aarti advised the police.
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“Priya advised me that if I may organize for a kid, I’d be paid a very good quantity. She advised me if I needed to promote my very own baby too, she may organize a purchaser,” Aarti claimed.
Aarti determined to affix fingers with Priya. “My husband couldn’t handle family bills… we have now been going through a extreme monetary disaster… I desperately wanted cash,” she advised police.
The following character on this racket was Nirmala alias Nimmi who labored at a lawyer’s workplace in Delhi. Her job, police mentioned, was to rearrange for authorized paperwork of adoption so all the course of seems reputable.
Police made Aarti name Nimmi and inform her she had organized yet one more baby. Nimmi fell for the bait and was arrested.
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Police, in the meantime, discovered that Priya’s actual identify was Kanta Bujhel and she or he was a nurse at a non-public hospital in Faridabad. A police group reached the hospital. They have been conscious that she rode a scooter. “Her scooter was within the parking zone. We got here to know she was helping in a childbirth and was within the operation theatre. So our group, who have been in civil garments, waited exterior,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
“Some individuals there mistook them as officers who had come for street construction-related work. The group waited for round three hours. Lastly, she got here out and was arrested.”
As soon as Kanta was picked up, all the racket unravelled.
“We discovered pictures of at the very least 18 kids on the telephones of Nimmi and Kanta… we all know there are extra suppliers on this ring; they’re being recognized,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
“Up to now, we have now recognized two extra suppliers and three-four patrons in Delhi in addition to different components of the nation. There are additionally two different middlemen who would repair the offers.”
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Police mentioned Nimmi and Aarti, each 5 months pregnant, have been produced earlier than a courtroom and despatched to judicial custody.
The MO
A number of layers of this baby kidnapping and trafficking racket have been uncovered in the course of the police probe. “This racket is sort of a internet… every time we make an arrest, we discover the involvement of extra individuals… it retains branching out. We’ve already arrested 4 and a dozen extra are below our surveillance,” mentioned Samaria.
Police discovered that Aarti’s position was to rearrange the youngsters. She would principally kidnap toddlers from poor, downtrodden and homeless individuals as a result of “no person will seek for their kids after some time”.
As soon as she kidnapped a baby, she would ship photos to each Kanta and Nimmi. After a deal was struck, Aarti and Suraj would faux to be the organic dad and mom of the kid and signal the adoption papers when the kid was handed over to the foster dad and mom to make it look reputable.
Kanta, police mentioned, was in contact with just a few docs and several other childless {couples}. She has additionally been shopping for new child infants from ladies in determined want of cash. “Kanta would use codes whereas speaking with Aarti and different suppliers. ‘Chota file’ was used to check with a child lady. A child boy was referred to as ‘bhadi file’. Whereas a lady baby was offered for Rs 50,000 to a lakh, the value for a child boy was fastened between Rs 2 lakh and Rs 4 lakh,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
Kanta had even advised Aarti that she would compensate her with a chunk of land value Rs 2.5 lakh, if she gave her new child baby after supply, police mentioned.
Police mentioned they’ve recognized one other chain linked to Nimmi and suspect she was concerned in supplying kidnapped kids to begging gangs in Delhi.
This chain, police mentioned, was unearthed after scanning Nimmi’s cell phone. “Aside from Aarti, she was in contact with one other provider in Malka Ganj, Outdated Delhi, who has been recognized solely as PB. Nimmi was additionally in contact with a girl who organized her patrons,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
Police, in the meantime, have recovered the 2 kids kidnapped by Aarti from New Delhi Railway station.
Aarti had offered the two-and-a-half-year-old boy, kidnapped final 12 months, to Nimmi, who requested a contact to discover a purchaser. The deal, police mentioned, was struck with a person in Loni for Rs 3 lakh. This man, police mentioned, additional offered the boy to a few in Loni. The couple had two daughters and have been determined to have a son, police discovered.
“We recovered the boy from Loni and seized the pretend adoption paperwork,” Inspector Samaria mentioned. “The kid is at a shelter house and we have now already knowledgeable his mom who will quickly arrive from Prayagraj.”
The four-month-old lady was recovered from a girl in Paharganj. “Aarti had handed over the kid to Kanta, who subsequently offered her,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
Police have discovered photos and paperwork of 4 different kids offered to a few based mostly in Pathankot, two docs and a childless lady respectively. “We’re nonetheless verifying the identification of the youngsters,” Inspector Samaria mentioned.
