The Railway Unit of Delhi Police successfully dismantled a child trafficking network by apprehending eight suspects, including four women, and rescuing an infant who was kidnapped from New Delhi Railway Station’s waiting hall last month. The abduction of one-and-a-half-year-old Kartik was reported on May 24 by his mother, Chanda Kumari, who had been living separately from her husband for about a year. In response to the case’s sensitivity, the Delhi Police’s Railway Unit promptly initiated an investigation and formed a specialized team to locate the missing child and capture the perpetrators.
The thorough investigation conducted by the Railway Unit involved various techniques such as CCTV surveillance, public engagement, digital forensics, and coordinated raids, leading to the exposure of a child trafficking syndicate. The police carried out simultaneous raids at different locations and successfully arrested the accused individuals, including Shiva alias Gaurav, Dharmender, Akil, Preeti Sharma, Pooja, Arti, Vishal, and Jiya. Inspector Vishwanath Paswan led the police team in establishing the sequence of events using CCTV footage from the day of the crime, as stated by the police.
Analysis of the CCTV footage revealed that three individuals took Kartik away from the railway station’s parking area on the Ajmeri Gate side. They were then observed traveling in a battery-operated rickshaw and later boarding an auto-rickshaw to various locations. Despite efforts to trace the suspects beyond a certain point, the police utilized posters with images of the kidnapped child and the suspected kidnappers to gather information. Subsequent investigations, including CCTV surveillance and coordinated raids, culminated in the arrest of the eight suspects involved in the child trafficking operation across multiple states.
