25-year-old Delhi woman arrested for kidnapping infant for 'sacrifice' to 'revive dead father', child rescued

A 25-year-old woman was arrested in southeast Delhi for allegedly kidnapping an infant to sacrifice him to bring her dead father to life, police said on Saturday.

The child was recovered safely from the accused, identified as Shweta, a resident of Kotla Mubarakpur, they said. She was previously involved in two cases of robbery and burglary, police said.

On Thursday around 4 pm, information was received that a two-month-old boy was kidnapped by an unknown woman from the Garhi area, they said.

A team comprising sub-inspector Rajinder Singh, head constables Ravinder Giri, Sher Singh, Sachin Saroha, Neeraj Kumar, Dinesh Kumar, and woman constable Poonam was formed to crack the case. The team was led by SHO Amar Colony police station Pradeep Rawat.

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According to the police, the infant's mother informed that the kidnapper met her in Safdarjung Hospital and introduced herself as a member of an NGO working for Jachcha-Bachcha care.

Shweta promised to provide free medicine and consultation to the mother and the child. Later, she followed them on the pretext of examining the newly born baby, police said.

On Wednesday, the accused also came to the family's home at Mamraj Mohalla, Garhi, for a check-up of the baby.

On Thursday, she came to their home again and convinced the mother of the child to hand over the infant for an outing. The mother asked her 21-year-old niece to accompany Shweta, a senior police officer said.

The accused woman came to Neem Chowk, Garhi, and took the infant in her car with the victim's niece Ritu. On the way, the kidnapper offered a cold drink to Ritu, due to which she fell unconscious. Later, the kidnapper dumped Ritu in Ghaziabad, the officer said.

After gaining some consciousness, Ritu informed her family that the child had been kidnapped, police said.

During the investigation, police checked the CCTV footage of the area and identified the registration number of the vehicle, they said.

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On Thursday around 4 pm, a tip-off was received that the kidnapper would come near Arya Samaj Mandir, Kotla Mubarakpur. Police conducted a raid, apprehended the accused, and recovered the infant safely, the officer said.

Shweta disclosed that her father had died in October. During the last rites, she came to know that the human sacrifice of an infant of the same gender "could revive her father and bring him to life," the officer said.

To execute this superstition, she started searching for an infant boy in the area. She went to Safdarjung Hospital in the maternity ward and introduced herself as working in an NGO for newly born children and mothers, police said.

Later, she met the victim's mother. To win her confidence, she often visited the infant and the family, they said.