Hyderabad: Chandanagar police busted an interstate child trafficking racket and rescued a one-month-old baby girl who was kidnapped from her mother while the family, members of a circus troupe, was sleeping on a pavement near Lingampally railway station.
According to police, the complainant, a 25-year-old circus worker from Balki village in Karnataka’s Bidar district, was sleeping with members of her circus group along the wall of Lingampally railway station in the early hours of June 30.
At around 2 am, unidentified men arrived in an auto-rickshaw and forcibly snatched her one-month-old daughter. The mother woke up to the infant’s cries and tried to chase the vehicle but could not catch it. A case was registered at Chandanagar police station under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Juvenile Justice Act.
Three special teams were formed under ACP CH Y Srinivas of the RC Puram division to trace the infant. Led by Chandanagar inspector S Vijai along with deputy inspectors Sathyanarayana and N Bhaskar, the teams scanned CCTV footage across Cyberabad, Malkajgiri and Hyderabad over three days before identifying and apprehending all five accused, recovering the baby before she could be taken out of the city.
Police said the trail led to Rehnuma Ali, 30, a resident of Topsia in Kolkata, who married in 2021 and had no children. She had asked her aunt, Nimmi Jahan Ali alias Seema, a resident of Banjara Hills, to help her adopt a baby in exchange for money. Seema passed the request to her friend Saadequa Maqsood alias Naziya of Neredmet, who in turn told her fiancé, Mohammed Zuber of Vikarabad.
Zuber then roped in his associate Mohammed Irfan, an auto driver from Vikarabad with a prior theft case against him. The two allegedly began scouting railway stations and secluded spots for infants to abduct and sell. They settled on the complainant’s baby after spotting the family asleep near Lingampally station.
On June 30, the two men hired an auto-rickshaw belonging to an acquaintance, went to the spot and snatched the baby at around 2 am, before taking her to Naziya’s house. Rehnuma Ali flew from Kolkata to Hyderabad on July 1 along with her aunt to take custody of the child. Zuber allegedly received Rs 1,50,000 through an online transfer from Rehnuma Ali as part of the deal.
Police arrested Mohammed Zuber and Mohammed Irfan as the kidnappers, Saadequa Maqsood alias Naziya and Nimmi Jahan Ali alias Seema as mediators, and Rehnuma Ali as the buyer. The infant was restored to her mother’s custody. The Commissioner of Police, Cyberabad, commended the teams for the coordinated operation that led to the rescue.
This post was last modified on July 3, 2026 3:41 pm