Reshma Shaikh, 31, was happy when she, along with her six-day-old baby, reached the Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) on Thursday night to catch a train to Pune.
The journey was supposed to be special for two reasons: first, the baby girl was going to meet her father for the first time; and secondly, Shaikh wanted to use the occasion to kiss and make up with her husband with whom she fought before leaving her home in September.
But all the hopes for a happy ending were dashed when her baby was kidnapped at the station.
Shaikh, a resident of Pimpri-Chinchwad in Pune, said a woman in burqa, who befriended her at the CST station, had stolen the baby.
At the station, Shaikh came to know that the next train to Pune would leave on Friday morning. Hence, she decided to spend the night in a waiting room.
After a while, a burqa-clad woman entered the retiring room and sat next to her. The woman, who introduced herself as Fatima Khan from Bihar, said she worked as an aaya (maid) in a private hospital. Soon, they became friendly. Both slept there and woke up in the morning.
Shaikh said: “I wanted to go to bathroom before boarding the train to Pune. So, I handed over my baby to Khan. When I returned after 15 minutes, I found Khan was missing with the child and my bag.”
She lodged a complaint with the railway police. The police have registered a case of kidnapping.
A inspector said: “Wireless messages containing description of the suspected woman was sent out to all railway police stations and city police stations. We will soon prepare her sketch and release it.”
Shaikh told the police she had left her home in Pune on September 29 after a fight with her husband, Farooq, a contractor by profession.
In Mumbai, Shaikh stayed at a friend’s place in South Mumbai. On October 8, she was admitted to St George Hospital, Fort, where she gave birth to a girl. She was discharged from the hospital on October 13 and went back to her friend’s place. After spending a day there, she had decided to go back to Pune on Thursday night.
