Four persons, including two women, were arrested here in Madhya Pradesh for allegedly kidnapping a four-month-old tribal boy and trying to sell him in Mumbai, police said on Friday.
The accused included a couple and an aunt of the infant, who has been rescued, district superintendent of police S Bahuguna said.
The accused were identified by the police as Rampyari Bai Barkade (40), the aunt of the boy, Sanjay Pandey (44) his wife Sharda (42) and Ranu Sharma (36), a resident on Madhya Pradeshs Narsinghpur district.
They were arrested on Thursday, he said.
The kidnapped baby was recovered from Ranu Sharma from Narsinghpur on October 7, Bahuguna said.
The father of the infant, a resident of Ghagra village near here, had lodged a complaint with the Bargi police station in Jabalpur district on September 19 about his missing son, he said.
In the complaint, the boy's father said his son had gone missing from home on September 18, Bahuguna said.
Police zeroed in on Barkade and after grilling her found she had kidnapped her nephew and handed him over to Sanjay Pandey, the SP said.
Barkade was a friend of Sanjay Pandeys wife. Sanjay Pandey paid Barkade Rs 10,000 to kidnap the boy, he said.
The couple handed over the child to their relative Ranu Sharma, who was trying to sell the boy in Mumbai, he said.
We are grilling Ranu to know to whom he was going to sell the boy in Mumbai, the police officer said.
The accused were booked under IPC sections 363 (kidnapping), 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to secretly and wrongfully confine that person), 451 (house- trespass in order to commit offence punishable with imprisonment), 370A (exploitation of trafficked person), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and also under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, he added.
