Kidnapped toddler rescued, labourer couple arrested

PUNE: A one-and-a-half year old boy, who was kidnapped from a construction site in Lullanagar on August 18, was rescued following the arrest of a labourer couple at the Pune railway station on Monday morning. The child, Bablu, has been reunited with his parents.
The arrested were identified as Vaishali Dashrath Sonawane (42) of Dhule and Shivkumar Ram Murti Swami (32) of Hyderabad.They were arrested after a group of autorickshaw drivers recognized Sonawane from police pamphlets and approached her.
"Around 8.30am on Monday, autorickshaw driver Ashfaque Shaikh saw Sonawane and Bablu near the reservation centre at the Pune railway station," Rajendra Mokashi, senior inspector of the Kondhwa police station, said.
Shaikh alerted drivers Mohammad Shaikh, Vijay Ohval, Babuji Shinde and Adam Alam, who then confronted her. "When Swami, who had gone to buy liquor and vada pav, reached the spot, they caught hold of him too. This led to a commotion, following which the railway protection force policemen intervened and took them to the railway police station," Mokashi added.
After police were informed about the incident, assistant police inspector Satish Pawar and his team reached the station, took the child into custody and arrested the couple.
The accused had started work on August 17 at the construction site where they befriended the toddler's father Kamalram Thapa. The next day, they told Thapa they were going for a walk with Bablu. When they didn't return till late evening, Thapa, who is from Nepal, got suspicious and approached the police. "A CCTV camera installed at a school near the construction site had captured their images," Pawar, who is investigating the case, said.
"We published the images on pamphlets with their descriptions and police contact numbers and circulated them at railway stations and bus stands. We posted the information on the Facebook page of the Kondhwa police and also circulated it on WhatsApp," Pawar added.
Additional commissioner of police (north region) Prakash Mutyal said Bablu has been reunited with his parents. "During interrogation, the accused told us that they took Bablu as they were childless," he said.
Swami also claimed that Thapa had allegedly taken Rs 1,500 from him. "When Thapa failed to return the amount, he took Bablu. Swami further said that he was planning to return the child within a few days." Thapa, however, has refuted charges of taking money from Swami.