Rajkot: DCB rescues minor boy year after ‘abduction’; 3 held

The couple handed the infant over to Fatimal alias Salma alias Sima Kadri (35), a resident of Khodiyar Colony in Jamnagar, but presently living in Khambhaliya town of Devbhoomi Dwarka district. Based on a complaint filed by the boy’s mother, a case of kidnapping was registered at Pradyuman Nagar police station in Rajkot city in May last year.

Agarwal said that Fatima had married four to five times. One of her marriages was with Nathalal Samaiya of Khambhaliya in 2012; however, the couple had separated in 2016. In 2019, Samaiya sold his land and other property for around Rs 2 crore. “With an aim to get a pie of this money, Fatima hatched a conspiracy to show that she had given birth to a son fathered by Samaiya. She got in touch with the Subhaniyas and promised them to pay Rs 2 lakh if they could abduct a good-looking one-year-old child. The trio then did recce of children at Digjam Circle and Bavri Colony in Jamnagar, bus stations, Shashtri Maidan and Sandhiya Pul in Rajkot as well as in Chotila. After Fatima selected the child, the Subhaniyas did recce for four more days, gave chocolates to their target as well as to other two children of the couple and lifted the one-year-old boy around 2 am when the couple and other children were asleep,” Agarwal said.

Police said that Fatima paid the Dwarka couple Rs 1 lakh and promised to pay the remaining sum later. Once she had the child, Fatima had a birth certificate issued for the child on the basis of an affidavit with incorrect information to the effect that the child was born to her on March 4, 2019 and that Somaiya was his father. Based on that birth certificate, Fatima had forced Somaiya to marry her again in 2019 and was staying with him. Fatima had renamed the child as Jaydeep.

Crime Branch officials said that during the entire operation, they had to be sensitive to the threat that the Fatima could kill the boy if she sensed that police were trying to trace her.