Ahmedabad: A four-and-a-half-year-old girl was kidnapped from Law Garden on Saturday, prompting a swift response from the police. The victim’s family filed a complaint soon after she went missing while playing in the garden.

The Crime Branch immediately swung into action, deploying a force of around 70 police personnel divided into 10 teams. Based on extensive analysis of nearly 300 CCTV footage clips, the team traced the child to a woman sitting near the Sabarmati Riverfront, close to the Raviwari Market.

Upon reaching the spot, the Crime Branch officers safely rescued the girl and reunited her with her family. The woman, identified as Nikita Dantani, was taken into custody. During interrogation, she confessed to kidnapping the child due to her inability to have children of her own. She had cut the girl’s hair and changed her clothes to avoid identification.

Investigations are ongoing to determine whether the woman is connected to a larger network involved in trafficking children across states or even abroad.

According to the victim’s family, a woman residing in Ambawadi had taken her daughter to Law Garden. The mother left the child playing there while she sold water bottles nearby. When she returned after selling the bottles, the child was nowhere to be found. Despite informing family and police, initial attempts to locate the girl were unsuccessful, compounded by non-functional CCTV cameras in the area.

Taking the kidnapping seriously, the Crime Branch launched an extensive search operation, which ultimately led to the discovery of the child with the accused woman near the Sabarmati Riverfront. DeshGujarat