The city crime branch on Sunday arrested a man previously working for a Bollywood actress as a cook for allegedly aiding a teenager in abandoning her newborn, after realising the girl as a minor the police added sections of the POCSO act. The accused Chandan Choudhary, 35 had been working for a leading Bollywood actress who has been in news for a series of controversies, Choudhary was working as a cook at her Khar resident, said police.
On Thursday night a man who was taking his dog for a walk heard cries of a baby, when he checked he found a baby girl abandoned outside Campbell house at Pedder Road inside the building's garden. He immediately alerted the police who rushed the infant to the hospital.
The Gamdevi police registered an offence under section 317 (Exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years, by parent or person having care of it) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and began their investigation.
The crime branch unit 2 which carried a parallel probe zeroed down on Choudhary with the help of CCTV footage and mobile dump data.
According to the police, Choudhary a native of Bihar came in contact with the minor a few months ago and established a romantic relationship after she got impregnated he refused to be the father. The girl, a native of Jharkhand who was till then working as a house help in Juhu and delivered a baby girl in Vile Parle hospital on January 3 on Thursday she went to Pedder Road to meet Choudhary along with the baby.
After abandoning the infant Choudhary kept the girl at a nearby house in Pedder Road to avoid suspicion but we traced both of them, said police.
We have handed over the custody of the accused to Gamdevi police station for further investigation, said Shrimant Shinde senior inspector of crime branch unit 2.
After it was clear that the girl is a minor the police added sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act and sent the girl to the children home while Choudhary was produced before the court and sent to police custody.
