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Desperate for a girl child, woman kidnaps female infant

Last Updated 23 May 2017, 19:36 IST

 Desperate to have a baby girl, a 38-year-old woman and her 13-year-old son reportedly kidnapped a two-year-old female child found unattended at Arekempanahalli in Mavalli, south Bengaluru.

But the woman, Fathima, panicked after learning that the jurisdictional Siddapura police were reviewing the CCTV footage to trace the child and that the baby’s father had put up hundreds of posters all over the locality. The woman then left the child at a dargah in Madiwala and sent word to the baby’s father through a bus driver.

Fathima has two sons from her third husband but longed for a girl. Her younger son was pressuring her to get him a baby sister. Fathima frequently visited the daughter-in-law of her elder sister and would tell her how much she yearned for a baby girl. On April 29, Fathima and her son found a girl unattended at Arekempanahalli and kidnapped her. They brought the child — identified as Kubra — to their house in Shikaripalya, Electronics City. On April 30, Fathima went to Arekempanahalli to see if the girl’s family was looking for her. Her relatives said the girl’s father — Syed Imam, an auto-rickshaw driver — was searching for her and that police were also at work.

Fathima panicked. The same day, she rushed back to her house, took Kubra to a dargah in Madiwala and left her there. She then went to Arekempanahalli and confided in Imran, a bus driver with National Travels who had  dropped her off at Madiwala. She told him the girl was at the dargah and requested him to inform her father. He obliged her. Imran rushed to the dargah and found his daughter.

When questioned, the bus driver told the police about the woman but said he didn’t know her name. He said she had given her phone number and could call him. On May 1, Fathima called him up and asked if the girl had been reunited with her family. Police traced the caller to Shikaripalya. But it was only on May 20 that they arrested Fathima. She said she kidnapped the girl thinking that she was homeless.

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(Published 23 May 2017, 19:36 IST)

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