Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi
New Delhi, Jun 19: Delhi Police's Railway Unit has dismantled an inter-state child trafficking network by arresting eight people, including four women, and rescuing a one-and-a-half-year-old infant who was abducted from New Delhi Railway Station last month.
The rescued child, Kartik, was kidnapped on May 24 from the station's waiting hall. His mother, 26-year-old Chanda Kumari, a resident of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, had reported the incident to police around 6.30 p.m.
Police said Chanda has been living separately from her husband, Dinesh, for the past year.
Given the sensitivity of the case, the Railway Unit immediately launched an extensive investigation and formed a dedicated team to trace the missing child and identify those responsible.
After a multi-layered operation involving CCTV analysis, digital forensics, public outreach and coordinated raids, investigators successfully uncovered a child trafficking syndicate operating across several states.
The eight arrested accused have been identified as Shiva alias Gaurav from Haridwar, Dharmender and Preeti Sharma from Muzaffarnagar, Akil from Amroha, Pooja from Jaipur, Arti from Badaun, Vishal from Gurugram and Jiya from Chandigarh.
The investigation was led by Inspector Vishwanath Paswan, Station House Officer (SHO) of New Delhi Railway Station, under the supervision of Assistant Commissioners of Police Rajesh Kumar and Sanjay Bhardwaj.
Police reconstructed the sequence of events using CCTV footage captured on the day of the kidnapping.
Investigators found that three individuals were involved in abducting the child. The suspects were first spotted near the Ajmeri Gate side parking area of New Delhi Railway Station.
After leaving the station, they boarded a battery-operated rickshaw and travelled to Mori Gate in Delhi. From there, they switched to an auto-rickshaw and proceeded to Shastri Park before heading to Kasim Vihar in Ghaziabad.
Police said the suspects later returned towards Shastri Park, but investigators were unable to trace any further CCTV footage beyond that point.
Authorities subsequently circulated posters containing photographs of the missing child and the suspected kidnappers across Delhi, Haridwar and Kasim Vihar.
A major breakthrough came when police received information from Haridwar regarding the kidnapping of a young girl. Investigators found that the faces of the suspects matched those involved in Kartik's abduction.
This lead enabled officers to expand the probe, eventually exposing the larger trafficking network.
Delhi Police then conducted simultaneous raids across multiple locations in four different states, leading to the arrest of all eight accused.
Officials said further investigations are underway to determine the full extent of the syndicate's activities and whether additional victims may be linked to the network.