3-year-old girl who was kidnapped saved just in time

Mumbai: A three-and-a-half-year-old girl, who was allegedly kidnapped and molested by one Nitin Tambatkar (25) early on Monday morning, was saved in the nick of time. The girl went missing from her house in Wadala at 7.30 pm on Sunday, following which her parents filed a missing person report an hour later. After five hours of rigorous search, she was found at 1.20 am with Tambatkar in a semi-nude state. The accused has been arrested.

According to police sources, Tambatkar kidnapped the toddler when she was playing in the vicinity. A few minutes later, when the girl was nowhere to be found, her parents approached the police station. Looking at the severity of the case, the police officers initiated a search operation and started looking at CCTV footage of the area.

The police had formed six teams to locate the girl and were taking various rounds to search for her. Five hours after the victim was reported missing, she was found loitering with a man in a semi nude state near the Wadala Monorail station at 1.20 am. The police immediately rescued the girl and arrested Tambatkar, who has not revealed anything substantial in the interrogation.

Sushil Kamble, senior police inspector of Wadala TT police station, said, “The accused was roaming with her, and had kidnapped her with bad intentions. A medical test will be conducted on her, to see if she was raped.”

Tambatkar has been booked under sections 361 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertain to kidnapping and molestation respectively, along with sections 8 and 12 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.