Little Mohammad Imran claps in joy after being rescued from a child-lifter at Sealdah station on Monday. Picture by Amit Datta

A two-year-old boy who went missing from the doorstep of his Narkeldanga house on Monday was traced hours later in the arms of a stranger at Sealdah station.

Police said Mohammad Imran went missing while playing in front of his Chamru Singh Lane house around 11.30am.

When mother Zahira Khatun started looking around for him, neighbours told her the child was last seen in the arms of a youth who was a stranger in the locality.

“As Zahira lodged a complaint, Imran’s photograph and a description of his clothes were sent to Lalbazar. Teams were sent out to keep a watch on the bus stands in Esplanade and Babughat. Railway police personnel, too, were alerted,” said Bikram Chakraborty, the officer-in-charge of Narkeldanga police station.

“Around 1.30pm, we were told that the Railway Protection Force had detained a youth who was moving suspiciously in the car-shed at Sealdah station holding an infant in his arms,” Chakraborty added.

Imran’s father Mohammad Ershad, who works in a leather-processing unit in Tiljala, identified the child.

The youth behaved as though he was deaf and mute. “He did not utter a word and was behaving like a mentally-challenged person during interrogation. He would laugh and cry alternately. After half an hour, he wrote down his name as Mithun Mandal, and then Sukhananda Mandal, from Krishnagar. He must have been up to tricks,” said an officer.

“This is how some child-lifters behave after being caught. We have already approached our counterparts in Krishnagar to verify the authenticity of the youth’s statements,” said Chakraborty.