16 days on, no clue of 7-month-old girl ‘abducted’ from Ludhiana railway station

According to GRP officials, one of the major problems they are facing is that the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera that is supposed to cover the spot from where the minor went missing was not functioning on the day of the incident

Over two weeks after a seven-month-old girl was allegedly “abducted” from the Ludhiana railway station, the Government Railway Police (GRP) are still struggling to find any concrete leads.

A minor girl, identified as Khushi, was reported missing from the station on June 30 (HT Photo)

A minor girl, identified as Khushi, was reported missing from the station on June 30. 

“It has been 16 days and the police have not found any credible clues about the whereabouts of my daughter. We are waiting haplessly,” said Khushi’s father Chandan Prasad. 

According to GRP officials, one of the major problems they are facing is that the closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera that is supposed to cover the spot from where the minor went missing was not functioning on the day of the incident.

“We looked into the footage from CCTV cameras but the camera that covers the spot is out of service,” said a GRP official. 

Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Sateesh Kumar, who is the investigating officer of the case, said they were “looking for leads”. 

“We haven’t found anything so far that can be considered a potential lead. We have scanned the footage from CCTV cameras installed around the station and other places, but nothing has come out of it,” he said. 

Earlier, the GRP had expressed suspicion about a woman captured in another camera, who could be seen carrying a child and a bag that looked similar to one of the bags that was stolen when Khushi was abducted. 

“Khushi’s family confirmed that the child that woman was carrying was neither wearing the clothes Khushi wore that day, nor did she bear any resemblance to the seven-month-old,” he said. 

Chandan, however, claimed that the footage shown by the GRP was not “clear enough to identify his daughter”. 

The investigating officer added the footage showed that the woman in question was carrying a child even before she reached the spot where Khushi was allegedly abducted from.

On June 30, the victim’s family and returned from Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir and were sleeping at the railway station.

They were to leave for their residence in Basti Jodhewal in the morning. However, when they woke up, they found Khushi, who was sleeping with her mother, missing.  

“We reached here around 2 am. As we were exhausted, we decided to take a nap at the station. When we were woken up by sweepers early in the morning, we found Khushi missing,” said Chandan.