New Delhi: Government Railway Police have recovered a seven-month-old child who was stolen from a platform of the Mathura junction six days ago from the house of a Bharatiya Janata Party corporator’s house.
The Firozabad Municipal Corporation corporator, 49-year-old Vineeta Agarwal and seven others have been arrested in the case. Firozabad Mayor Nutan Rathore has confirmed that Vineeta Agarwal is indeed a BJP corporator. Among those arrested are Agarwal’s husband Krishna Murari (51), and two auxiliary nurse-midwives (ANM).
The child has been recovered and handed over to his parents, according to officials.
Agarwal and her husband Krishna Murari had paid Rs 1.80 lakh for the infant as they wanted to have a male child, officials speaking to the news agency PTI noted. The couple have a daughter.
“An infant named Sanjai was stolen at 4 am on August 24 from platform number 8/9 while his parents were asleep,” SP (Railways) Mustaq Ahmad said.
A week ago,a 7 mth old child was kidnapped from a platform at the Mathura rly stn – as his parents slept. Today,cops arrested 8 people – incl 2 docs ,a BJP corporator and her husband. Docs allegedly sold kid to couple for 2 lakh rs .Kid recovered… man in cctv also arrested. pic.twitter.com/sJJHS7DSGL
— Alok Pandey (@alok_pandey) August 29, 2022
The infant was son of one Radha, a resident of Parkham village under the Farah Police Station in Mathura district, he said.
On the basis of the CCTV footage, six teams were formed to work out the case, the officials said.
They found that one Deep Kumar of Hathras, who sells asafoetida at the station, had kidnapped the child from the platform.
According to officials, the act was the work of an organised gang, including the two ANMs, one posted in Hathras and the other in Firozabad. The ANMs were tasked with scouting couples who are looking to buy male children, officials told PTI.
The officials identified the accused as Prem Bihari and Dayavati, who run a private hospital in Hathras, Poonam (43) and Vimlesh (38), the ANMs, and Deep Kumar (40), who stole the child, besides one Manjeet, 43.
Hindustan Times has reported that Prem Bihari and Dayavati are doctors and that their hospital ‘Bankey Behari Hospital,’ was a front for illegal business.
Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, while reacting to the incident, in a Hindi tweet said, “The BJP has stolen the present and future of children. Now, at least do not do this work!” He also shared a news report of the incident.
भाजपा ने बच्चों का वर्तमान और भविष्य तो चुरा ही लिया है… अब कम से कम ये काम तो न करें! pic.twitter.com/pJsQswUBRG
— Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) August 29, 2022
(With PTI inputs)
Featured image: A video screengrab showing a man picking up a child, purportedly from the Mathura railway station. Photo: Twitter/@alok_pandey.
This article was first published on The Wire.