Guwahati: The Assam police have arrested three persons for allegedly abducting an 18-month-old baby girl and trying to sell her to a childless couple in Telangana’s Hyderabad.


At around 3:20 pm on Sunday, a person, Ashok Shah (28), residing at the Koinadhara area in Assam’s Guwahati, filed a First Information Report (FIR) at the city’s Dispur police station, stating that his 18-month-old daughter was abducted at around 12:30 pm on the same day, by an unknown person, who used to frequently visit his tea stall at the Khanapara area in the city for having tea.


In the FIR, Shah mentioned that the unknown man had previously inquired about rented rooms in the vicinity and provided him with his mobile phone number. Based on the FIR, a case was registered at the Dispur police station vide case number 118/2024, under section 365 (kidnapping or abduction) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).


Though Shah did not know the name of the person, he provided crucial details of the suspect to the police, and without wasting time, a police team from the East Guwahati Police District (EGPD) swung into action to rescue the abducted child.


Based on technical analysis and human intelligence inputs, the police zeroed in on the suspect, identified as Biswajit Das aka Sameer Dey, aged 30, a permanent resident of Batadrava in Assam’s Nagaon district and currently residing in Guwahati’s Lalganesh area under the jurisdiction of the Fatasil Ambari police station. The police soon picked up Das and his wife Sabita Dey (28), a permanent resident of Lumding in Assam’s Hojai district and currently residing with her husband in Guwahati, for interrogation.


Guwahati Commissioner of Police (CP) Diganta Barah said that during interrogation, Das revealed that he and his wife had abducted the child and kept her in the custody of one Jelimon Begum at her rented house in the city’s Lal Ganesh area. Following the information provided by Das, the child was rescued by the police from Begum’s house.


Narrating the incident, CP Barah said, “Das developed a friendly acquaintance with Shah, his wife and the abducted child, by frequently visiting their tea stall. Das and his wife Sabita had friendship with Begum, who is a professional egg donor at a Guwahati-based In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) clinic. Begum came in contact with an agent who offered her to act as a surrogate mother at Hyderabad and accordingly, she went there but her surrogacy failed as she did not conceive. She was then introduced to a person, who in turn, introduced her to an agency in Hyderabad which provides children to childless couples for adoption. The agency tasked Begum with finding children in Assam, whose parents are not in a position to raise them, and for adoption by childless couples, for which she was promised a handsome sum of money.”


Accordingly, Begum after returning to Assam a few months ago informed Sabita and Das, a mobile repairing mechanic, to look for such a child who can be given to the agents in Hyderabad. Das was in debt as he did not have any permanent source of income and so, he orchestrated a plan to abduct the child from Shah’s tea stall, taking the help of one Niki Boro, an employee of Shah.


“Niki does not have any connivance in the abduction plan but since she stays in the tea stall, sometimes playing with the child, Das hatched a plan to use her for taking the child from her parents. Accordingly, Das asked Niki to bring the child to him for taking her for a ride and without knowing the intention of Das, she took the child from the shop and handed her over to him. Once Das got hold of the child, he took her with the help of Sabita and handed her over to Begum,” CP Barah added.


Police soon arrested Begum and during interrogation, she confessed to devising a plot to procure a child from Assam and sell it to the Hyderabad-based agency. Begum also confessed to her collaboration with Das and Sabita in executing the abduction plan for money.


CP Barah on Tuesday told ABP Live that the accused trio was produced before the court and have been remanded to four-day police custody.


The writer is a senior independent journalist covering the Northeast.


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