In a chilling betrayal of blood ties, a five-year-old girl sleeping on the footpath outside her modest home in Vakola, Santacruz East, was quietly lifted around midnight on November 23 by her maternal uncle and aunt. The couple, driven by financial desperation, carried the child away while her mother slept nearby and within hours sold her to a known trafficking intermediary for a mere ₹90,000 in cash.

The buyer wasted no time and resold the girl the same day to another couple in Panvel for double the amount—₹1.8 lakh—completing a heartless transaction chain that treated the innocent child as merchandise. The distraught mother discovered her daughter missing at dawn on November 24 and immediately rushed to Vakola police station to lodge a kidnapping complaint.

Senior inspectors formed dedicated teams that worked relentlessly for 36 hours straight, scanning hundreds of hours of CCTV footage, tracking suspicious vehicles, and following mobile tower locations across Mumbai and neighbouring Raigad district. Crucial leads finally pinpointed the child’s location to a residential colony in Panvel, enabling the raid.

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On the evening of November 25, police stormed the house, safely recovered the frightened but physically unharmed girl, and placed five accused under arrest—including the treacherous uncle, aunt, the initial purchaser, and the final buyers. All suspects were produced before a magistrate and remanded to custody.

Before the tearful reunion with her mother at the police station, a compassionate woman constable knelt down, offered chocolates and a teddy bear, and gently coaxed a smile from the traumatised child. Medical examination confirmed no injuries or abuse during captivity. The case has been registered under stringent sections of the Juvenile Justice Act and IPC for kidnapping, trafficking, and criminal conspiracy.

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