Despite clues, abductors elusive

Two couples in Chennai, united in their grief of having lost their children to abductors, are still hopeful of getting them back. They go to the police stations every day, ever since their babies were abducted from the pavements, and return home without a clue. Now police have asked them not to visit the station, telling them they would be called once the police receive some information regarding the whereabouts of their children.

Lakshmi (22) and Perumal (25), both living on the platform at Wall Tax Road lost their 9-month old baby girl to abductors on February 29 this year. Mehta (23) and Vimal (28), lost their 8-month old baby boy on March 23. 

It took exactly 42 days to prepare a sketch of the missing baby girl and to create a poster (seen in picture). The police have the CCTV visual showing the abductors coming in cars, spending more than one hour near the platform and abducting the child. They have scouted the adjacent streets and pasted posters here as well. Despite garnering definite clues regarding the abductors, the police are still clueless about the whereabouts of the kids.   

Lakshmi’s husband worked at the end of the street as a load worker and her elder kid was in a nearby government school. She says, “We have no tears to cry. If I sit here crying about my baby, our family would be starving for the day. 

“We live on what my husband brings home and whatever little I make through odd jobs. Police say that they are trying. I breastfed my child at around 1.30 am on the day when she was kidnapped. That was the last time I saw my baby.” She adds that the policemen had come to the platform on Monday night and stuck the posters asking public to share information on the missing baby girl.

“I had tied my baby to me using my saree. They cut my saree and took away the kid. I was sleepless the previous night as there was some work going on near the platform and they asked us to move and we went to sleep very night on the day of the abduction as well. So my sleep was very deep and I did not realise what had happened,” Lakshmi says. 

In the latest case, Mehta is now scared to even let her kids go near the platforms. She, along with her other family members live in shanties erected inside the High Court Bus Stand. On March 23, they had decided to sleep on the pavement as there was no power inside their hut. “They abducted my kid and I am searching for him on every street, every day. 

“I cannot go out with these two kids during afternoon hours and I continue to search for my baby during evening hours. Police keep on saying that they will find our baby and ask us not to come to the police station,” Mehta says.