Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Police Monday detained one person in connection with the theft of a one-and-half-year-old boy of a visually impaired beggar from a footpath in Bhubaneswar.
Bhubaneswar DCP Jagmohan Meena said that multiple police teams have been formed to look for the stolen boy.
“Steps are being taken to obtain photographs and footage of the missing child and the place of occurrence and probable entry and exit routes for identification of the culprit,” he said.
He said technical data, human intelligence and confidential sources have been engaged to get clues in the case.
“One suspect has been detained in the case,” a release issued by the police said.
The incident took place early Sunday when Jayanti Mallik, a 25-year-old visually impaired beggar, was sleeping on a footpath near Sri Ram Mandir in the Janpath area.
She made a living by begging and stayed at Kanyashram, a shelter home for destitute women. However, due to bad weather, she could not return to the shelter home Saturday night and slept on the footpath with her six-year-old daughter and her one-and-half-year-old son, the DCP said.
Around 2 am Sunday, an unidentified person came to her and offered juice to them and gave his mobile phone to the child to play.
“The baby was playing with the mobile phone, and I went back to sleep. When I woke up, that person had left the place with the child,” the woman said.
Worrying that the child must not have eaten anything as he is breastfed, the woman made fervent appeals to the police to trace her child and bring him back.
“He could steal my child as I am blind,” she added.
PTI
