NEW DELHI: A couple who last year lost their 17-year-old son in an unfortunate accident decided to steal a child to fulfil their daughter’s wish of tying a rakhi with a brother. Already under a crippling affliction after the loss of their son, who fell from the terrace of their house, the alleged couple Sanjay Gupta (41) and Anita Gupta (36), were on a motorcycle near Chhatta Rail Chowk when they saw an infant lying next to his mother who was sleeping on the roadside.
The infant’s mother, who was differently-abled from both hands and legs and his father, who was a rag picker, were both sleeping when the couple stole the child. Around 3 am, the mother woke up only to find her baby boy missing from her lap. She raised an alarm after which her husband approached the police and lodged a missing complaint.
The police immediately swung into action and registered an FIR under relevant sections of law and began an intensive manhunt to locate the offenders.
“The place of incident was not covered by any CCTV camera. The team checked the cameras of nearby areas and looked for the suspected people and noticed that the movements of one motorcycle were under suspicious circumstances,” DCP (north) Sagar Singh Kalsi said.
The motorcycle took 4-5 turns on that patch, so the police team started to chase them with the help of CCTV cameras. The number plate was not clearly visible forcing the cops to check about 400 CCTV cameras. The cops finally identified the motorcycle registration number but two digits were still unreadable.
“So, the team checked the ownership of 100 motorcycles of missing registration numbers assuming from 01 to 99 and thereafter analysed the ownership, address of owner, colour, make, manufacturing year of motorcycle and shortlisted 5 to 6 motorcycles,” the DCP said.
The police zeroed in one number which was found registered in the name of one Sanjay Gupta, who was residing at a cluster and criminal-prone area. A raid was conducted with at least a dozen armed policemen and the house of the alleged was located where all the three -- Sanjay, his wife Anita and the kidnapped infant were found.
Stolen in sleep
The victim infant’s mother, who was differently-abled from both hands and legs and his father, who was a rag picker, were both sleeping when the couple stole the child. Around 3 am, the mother woke up only to find that her just born baby boy was missing from her lap.