Kalyan: The purported kidnapping of a six-month-old infant from outside Kalyan railway station turned out to be a fabricated story after a police investigation revealed that the child’s mother had left the baby with her parents in Varanasi before arriving in Kalyan.The woman, identified as Roshani Suraj Sahoo, a resident of Vapi in Gujarat, had approached the Mahatma Phule police claiming that her six-month-old son, Aryan, was abducted. At the same time, she was asleep beneath the skywalk outside Kalyan railway station in the early hours of July 14.Given the seriousness of the complaint, police launched a large-scale search operation, scrutinising CCTV footage from Kalyan railway station and surrounding areas. However, investigators soon found inconsistencies in her story.Initially, Roshani told police that she had travelled from Vapi to Kalyan after a quarrel with her husband and that the baby was kidnapped while she slept outside the station. But CCTV footage failed to show her arriving on any train from Vapi.Police then expanded the investigation and examined footage from trains arriving from other destinations. They found Roshani alighting from the Mahanagari Express from Varanasi. She was also not seen carrying a baby. CCTV footage from other locations also showed only a shoulder bag and no infant with her.“Her statements kept changing during questioning, which raised suspicion. Since the complaint involved a missing infant, we first verified the CCTV footage before confronting her. During sustained interrogation, she admitted that the kidnapping story was false,” said Ashok Honmane, ACP, Kalyan Division.Further questioning revealed that Roshani had left Aryan with her parents in Varanasi before travelling to Kalyan. Police said she allegedly fabricated the kidnapping story because she did not wish to continue living with her husband.According to investigators, Roshani had earlier been married and has another child from her first marriage, who is also living with her parents. Police said she had similarly left Aryan with her parents after her second marriage.A team from Mahatma Phule police travelled to Varanasi, completed the necessary legal formalities and took custody of the child. Senior Inspector Baliram Singh Pardeshi of Mahatma Phule police station said the team is returning to Kalyan with the woman and the infant.Police are continuing their investigation and are examining whether legal action should be initiated against the woman for allegedly lodging a false kidnapping complaint.
