Domestic Help Kidnaps 3-Year-Old, Flees With Child After Argument Over Salary

A domestic help has been arrested for kidnapping her employer's 3-year-old daughter, demanding ransom and fleeing with the child following an argument over her salary, police said.

The 23-year-old woman reportedly fled with the baby from Delhi, the capital city of India, to the woman's native in Alwar, a city in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan around 70 miles away. The child was rescued within three hours of kidnapping and the suspect whose identity has not been revealed was arrested Monday, Hindustan Times reported.

According to officers, the suspect kidnapped the girl while her mother was out for work Monday afternoon. The woman then reportedly called the child's mother demanding $560 (INR 42,000), including her salary for safely returning the child. She also reportedly threatened to kill the baby and herself if she did not receive the ransom in her bank account.

"The complainant told us that she had scolded the domestic help in the morning for not doing household work properly,” a senior investigating officer told Hindustan Times.

The suspect was reportedly upset after the incident and had an argument with the child's mother over her salary. The child's mother had threatened to remove the woman from the job after she demanded a raise in her pay, police said, reported The Indian Express.

The police reviewed surveillance cameras in the neighborhood where the girl child lived with her mother and saw footage of the suspect leaving the home with her. The police later rescued the girl from Alwar while the two were traveling in a bus.

The police have registered a case against the suspect on charges of kidnapping for ransom.

Earlier this month, a 1-month-old boy was reportedly kidnapped from the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The infant's aunt posed as a health worker and visited the family on the pretext of vaccinating the child. The woman then took the boy and fled away in a car. The police later rescued the infant while the woman and her husband were arrested. The police said the childless couple plotted the kidnapping as they were desperate for a child.