Mumbai: A 33-year-old man from Uttar Pradesh, working on a construction site in the Shivaji Nagar area in Govandi, has been arrested for allegedly kidnapping a toddler. What made him commit such a crime has left even the police emotional. The accused apparently wandered around child adoption centres for over five months but failed to clear the formalities every time as his wife is handicapped.
The accused, Malikram Yadav, lives in a chawl in Mahatma Phule Nagar of Chembur. Explaining the case, Arjun Rajane, senior police inspector of Shivaji Nagar police told the FPJ that Yadav had two daughters from his first wife. However, due to differences, she didn’t allow the children to meet him.
“He was depressed and remarried to have a child. Given the medical condition of his wife, they could not conceive and started considering adoption,” said Rajane.
However, it was Yadav’s sheer bad luck that all adoption agencies rejected his application citing his financial background and his wife’s challenges. The couple kept trying for months in Mumbai and their hometown in UP but failed hopelessly.
On March 3, the Shivaji Nagar police received a complaint from a 35-year-old man that his two-year-old child was kidnapped from the Imam Wada area in Govandi, following which the police deployed special teams to investigate the case.
The police scanned dozens of CCTV cameras to look for the suspect and finally found the ‘act of kidnapping’ captured on one. Yadav, after abducting the child, took him to his residence in Chembur and called up his wife.
The police team tracking Yadav didn’t wait for the official formalities and booked flight tickets to UP with personal money. Yadav was arrested on Wednesday early morning. “He offered the child chocolates to lure him. Whatever circumstance he was in, a crime was committed. Our priority was the safety of the child, who is reunited with parents,” said Rajane.
