Parents in Naya Nagar area of Nagpada are a worried lot with four children reported missing from the locality since Friday last week.
Sources said that another abduction was prevented Tuesday night after locals saw a young boy being carried away.
On Sunday, three minors — two six-year-old girls and a four-year-old boy allegedly went missing while playing below their apartment block. The children, identified as Tarannum Rasul (6), Kulsum Zubair (6) and Gulfam Rasul (4) are all residents of Naya Nagar area in Nagpada. The children, who were last seen playing together have been missing since Sunday evening.
“Both of them left home at about 3.30 pm and neighbours saw them playing with other children near the building,” said a distraught Rukhsana, mother of Tarannum and Gulfam, who works as a house-help.
Kulsum’s mother Nazneen said her daughter and son Akbar Ali (4) visited their grandfather’s shop after lunch and then left the shop to play with Tarannum, Gulfam and another girl Nagma (10).
The Nagpada police which is investigating the case said that CCTV footage shows they were on the adjacent Morland Road, a few minutes away from their houses. “The footage shows three girls and two boys walking on the road. We identified one of them as Nagma and found that she returned home within a few hours. We are talking to her to gain more information,” said Shivaji Kadam, senior police inspector, Nagpada police station.
After this, Akbar Ali reportedly returned home reportedly on the orders of his sister Kulsum. Sources said Nagma was with them till the YMCA playground in the area. “She says they were crossing the road and she was ahead of them; when she turned to look for them the children were gone,” said Kulsum’s uncle, who did not wish to be named.
“She also mentioned that a taxi blocked her view and in a second the taxi and the children were both gone. But the police has no clue about the registration number of the taxi as there are no CCTVs in the area,” he said. Sources said the police received information that the children were seen on LBS Marg of Kurla Tuesday night, but it turned out to be a false alarm. “Tuesday night, an eight-year-old boy was accosted by a man and dragged away.
Luckily, some residents saw the act and raised an alarm. The abductor fled,” said Imran Khan, a local.
35-year-old Mohammed Nadaf fears something similar might have happened to his son, 13-year-old Imtiaz Nadaf. The teenager went missing on April 22 when he left home to go to a public toilet. “He left home around 10 pm and the neighbours say they saw him heading towards the toilet, but he was not seen later,” he said.
