Nagpur: Following the arrest of Prajapati couple — Yogendra and Rita – in the case of abducting and selling an 8-month old child in Kalmana, many cases of child-lifting and selling are likely to be exposed. The Prajapati couple has been arrested by the police from Kota in Rajasthan. Both were brought to Nagpur on Sunday. Investigation revealed that the accused had tried to steal a girl child two years back.
This clearly shows that this gang has been active in stealing children for a long time. The police produced Prajapati couple and gang leader Shweta Ramchandra Sawale alias Shweta Maqbool Khan (45). The court remanded the trio to police custody till November 19. The Prajapati couple was part of a child-lifter and seller gang who sold eight-month-old Jiten Nishad to a childless couple for Rs 2.50 lakh. The gang was busted by the team of CP Amitesh Kumar, and six people have been arrested so far including three women.
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During interrogation, Yogendra told police that they had come to Nagpur two years ago and stayed here on rent for about two and a half months. During that period, both tried to steal a child, but failed. When asked about Shweta, the accused said that they do not know her. The Prajapati couple said that they only know Farzana alias Asar Qureshi (40), a resident of Kundanlal Guptanagar. It was through him that there was talk of selling the children, but the police did not believe them.
It was Shweta who had taken the children of a couple living in the Indora area. Taking money from them, Rs 60,000 were given to the Prajapati couple. Farzana got Rs 10,000, Sachin Ramesh Patil got Rs 55,000 and Seema Parwani Abdul Rauf Ansari got Rs 15,000. Shweta has earlier been arrested in human trafficking cases.
According to a report in local Times of India, Nagpur police are contemplating DNA tests of the two children found with Yogendra Prajapati and his supposed wife Rita when they were arrested from the train on their way to Kota in Rajasthan in the early hours of Saturday. The two children have been sent to the government remand home at Nagpur.
The Prajapati couple was staying with two children at Chikhali Layout posing as a ‘family’ since mid-October. They had kidnapped Jiten after befriending his family over some weeks. Shweta Sawale, alias Shweta Khan alias Ayesha, who was arrested in Balaghat in Madhya Pradesh, was also remanded till November 19 by the court when she was produced along with the Prajapati couple. Shweta, has been booked twice earlier, and was arrested last year by Kotwali police in a similar case.
Senior inspector of Kalamna police station Vinod Patil, who registered the latest offence, said police would try to ascertain the real identity of the two children found with the Prajapati couple.
