Gandhinagar, Oct 22 : On Diwali day, a six-month-old infant, Shahrukh, was kidnapped from the outskirts of Panot village near Chhatral Road in Kalol, Gandhinagar district in Gujarat. However, the Gandhinagar police cracked the case within hours, tracing the accused and safely rescuing the child.

According to police sources, Kala Mir and her family had gone shopping in Kalol and were sitting near a lassi stall close to Chhatral Bridge around 2:30 p.m. on October 20.

Kala Mir briefly stepped away to buy balm from a nearby medical store, leaving her infant son with the family. In that short span, an unidentified woman dressed in a green saree walked off toward the bridge carrying the baby.

When Kala Mir returned, she found her child missing and immediately raised an alarm. Responding swiftly, teams from Kalol Taluka Police, Local Crime Branch (LCB), Special Operations Group (SOG), and Cyber Surveillance units launched a coordinated investigation.

CCTV footage and local intelligence led officers to identify the suspect as Madhi Nayak, a 40-year-old woman who previously resided in Galaxy Society, Chhatral.

After an 18-hour search using technical surveillance and informant networks, police traced and apprehended Madhiben Nayak in Meda-Adaraj village.

The kidnapped Shahrukh was found unharmed and safely reunited with his parents. During interrogation, the accused reportedly confessed that she had abducted the baby out of a deep desire to have a child of her own.

Following her arrest, Gandhinagar Police handed the infant back to his family, who expressed heartfelt gratitude to the officers for their swift and effective action.

In 2023, Gujarat reported a significant increase in child abduction cases, with the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) documenting a total of 734 abductions, including both minors and adults.

Notably, 296 of these cases were registered in Ahmedabad, marking a sharp rise from 182 cases in 2021. The majority of victims were girls aged between 12 and 16 years, often abducted for purposes such as forced marriages, human trafficking, and sexual exploitation.

/IANS