Gujarat worker’s 2-year-old daughter gets abducted twice in two months

A two-year-old baby in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, was abducted twice. Daughter to daily wage workers, the baby was first abducted under the pretence of getting vaccinated, soon after his birth on April 1, 2021. 

Also read: 3 sisters ace Rajasthan Administrative Service exam together

The First Attempt

The mother of the baby spoke to the BBC and revealed that a woman, who claimed to be a nurse at the hospital where she had delivered the baby, visited her home and asked her to get the baby vaccinated. Meena later went to the hospital along with the woman and was told to wait while he was being photographed. Hours passed but there was no news from the nurse, causing Meena to panic and cry. “Hearing my cries, the security guards asked me what had happened. When I told them, they called the police,” she told the BBC. 

Also read: SC questions validity of sedition law, asks why Centre not getting rid of it

Later, Police Inspector HP Zala and his team took help from the CCTV footage and found a woman with a baby. After talking to the rickshaw drivers nearby, they were led to a nearby village, where after scanning the footage again, they were directed to another village. Interestingly, the search ended up in finding a woman with a baby, but not Meena’s. Turns out, the baby was with her husband who had eloped with another woman. The couple was arrested but later released on bail. After a thorough investigation, it was found out that the woman kidnapped the baby fearing that her husband would leave her because she had delivered a stillborn baby during her pregnancy.

Also read: Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao’s happy dance, days after announcing the split. Watch

The Second Search

Meena and her husband’s happiness was short-lived, for the baby was kidnapped again on June 1 when his mother had left him under a tree while she was working nearby. After scanning the CCTV footage, the search led to a man who claimed that it was his friend from Rajasthan with the baby. 

The investigation finally led to the man in Rajasthan revealing that the man kidnapped the baby because he and his wife were without a child. 

Also read: Try out these 5 recipes by MasterChef Australia winner Justin Narayan

“He used to work at a construction site with Meena’s husband. When he found out about the baby, he hatched a plan to abduct him,” Mr Zala told the BBC. 

The experience was traumatic for Meena and her husband Manu. So much so , that the parents do not let the kid get out of their sight out of fear that he might get abandoned again. 

Child abduction is on a rise in India with more than 43,000 children going missing last year, according to the Ministry of Women and Child Development.