Navi Mumbai: Four-Year-Old Girl Found Six Hours After Being Kidnapped

Navi Mumbai, 31st March 2023: Six hours after being kidnapped from Taloja on Wednesday night, a four-year-old girl was found and returned to her parents by Taloja police.

 

Outside of their home in sector 2 of Taloja phase I, the young girl was playing with a friend who was five years old when the accused, named Pramod Mahto (30), emerged from a nearby hair salon. He approached the two girls and sat with them on the sidewalk as they played. Eventually, he picked up the child and put her on his bike; when bystanders noticed this, they informed her parents. Her folks have only one child, her. In some cultures, the mother works as a housekeeper while the father keeps watch.

 

When the child’s parents and neighbours were unable to locate her, they turned to the authorities, according to Senior Police Inspector Jitendra Sonawane of the Taloja Police Station. By around 7 o’clock that evening, the parents went to the police and explained what had occurred.

 

Without delaying any formalities, such as taking a statement or filing a complaint, Taloja officers launched the search. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone II) Pankaj Dahane, one team began the search on the pitch with the assistance of a bomb squad, while another team examined the CCTV footage that was accessible.

 

The crew was able to determine the scooter’s registration number from a CCTV recording, and they then began searching for the two-wheeler. They were taken by the dog squad close to the railroad lines of the train that crashed. They discovered the scooter positioned close to the metro bridge. They observed the frightened kid walking a short distance away in the space between the tracks and the road. They gathered her up right away and gave her to her parents, according to assistant police inspector Sunil Gurav of the Taloja police station.

 

The accused was not visible anywhere in the neighbourhood. After the kid underwent a medical examination, it was determined that there had been no abuse of any kind. It was crucial to catch the suspect quickly, so we kept looking for him. Eventually, at around 4 am on Thursday, he was discovered at section II of Taloja, heading home, Sonawane said. The suspects withheld the reason for the kidnapping. He claimed that after the young girl asked him for chocolate, he purchased one for her, gave her a ride, and then abandoned the child and the two-wheeler when the fuel ran out.

 

The police claimed that when they attempted to verify the account using the available CCTV video, it appeared to be incoherent. The accused, a Taloja Phase I inhabitant and a native of Bihar lived there with his wife and 18-month-old daughter.

 

On Thursday, Mahto was brought before the Panvel Judicial Magistrate First Class Court after being arrested under the provisions of IPC section 363 (kidnapping). He has since been remanded to magisterial detention. Currently, the accused is being held in Taloja prison.