Mumbai, Sept 23: Though police recently dismissed allegations of a child lifters' gang being operational in the north-west suburbs as rumours, investigations done by Express Newsline have revealed that 18 children - 11 boys and seven girls - have gone missing from this area stretching from Bandra upto Borivli this year alone. Also, six unsuccessful attempts of abduction were made in Andheri and Goregaon in the last five days, including one today.Oshiwara police this year registered at least six complaints ofmissing children (see box). They are now focusing their investigations on the possible involvement of a gang. They believe the children were either forced into a begging racket or used as human sacrifices.
The arrest of Abdul Sattar Shaikh might have solved the rape and murder case of eight-year-old Azra Shaikh of Jogeshwari, but there are several other cases that are yet undetected.
n Last Friday, a middle aged woman tried to kidnap eight-year-old Shabana Usman and 17-year-old Noor JahanPatel at Khajurwadi in Jogeshwari. After an alarm was raised, the woman escaped in an autorickshaw.
n A burkha-clad man tried to drag eight-year-old Parveen Khandwani into a rickshaw in front of her school on Saturday. Khandwani had a narrow escape.
n On the same day, an unidentified man tried to put an handkerchief on the nose of nine-year-old Ashok Ram while he was on his way to the Municipal Marathi school. Ashok managed to free himself and escape.
n In the evening the same day, two girls, Kausa and Kamli made an unsuccessful attempt to kidnap three-year-old Aliya Shaikh from Motilal Nagar no 2 at Goregaon. The girls who were arrested by the Goregaon police provided the much needed breakthrough to the police.
n Today, four unidentified men tried to kidnap 14-year-old Asif Shaikh, while he was on his way to Fidya Diamond Jubilee School at Andheri.
In their statements to the police the two sisters, Kausa and Kamli, claimed to have come from Manpura village of Godhra district in Gujarat. Thegirls who were apparently rag-pickers admitted that they were supposed to handover Aliya to one Prashant who was waiting in an autorickshaw nearby. The description of unidentified man given by young Ashok Ram to Oshiwara police and that of Prashant by the two sisters matches, the police said.
A police party under the instructions of the police inspector, crime, Musa Shaikh of the Goregaon police have already left for Gujarat. The senior police inspector of the Goregaon police station, M N Sanap, told
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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