A Rajasthan couple who were struggling to conceive allegedly kidnapped a four-year-old boy from Jaipur railway station last week. The couple carried the boy away to raise him as their own, police said.

Sundar Kashyap and Jeevika, both 28 years old, kidnapped the toddler, Shivam, when he and his mother, Priyanka, were waiting for a train. The kidnapping was caught on CCTV cameras installed at the station.

On the evening of March 14, Priyanka and her three children were on their way to her parent’s house in Siwan, Bihar, when Jeevika lured Shivam. The accused pair then got on a bus at Narayan Singh Circle heading for Uttar Pradesh. Following a nightlong search for Shivam, his parents- both daily-wage workers- filed a complaint with GRP on March 15.

“Everything was caught on CCTV, which helped us track the accused,” SHO Arun Chaudhary of the GRP said.

The Police detained the young couple from Mahuwa in the Dausa district of Rajasthan two days later.

The GRP eventually located the couple and returned the child to his parents within 48 hours.

The child was found safe and the accused were taken into custody when police arrived at their address on Sunday and searched the house.

Ajmer GRP DSP Narender Singh noted that Jeevika, a mother of two, had been living with Kashyap, a worker who earned a daily wage, since leaving her husband.

She was unable to conceive due to a “sterilisation procedure.” Singh added that the couple “tried medical options to have a child but failed, and they plotted to kidnap a child,” the Times of India reported.

The couple had been preparing to kidnap a child for almost eight months and had spent hours conducting research at the train station before carrying out their plot, the investigation revealed. The couple reportedly packed clothes, snacks, and milk in a bag when they travelled to the train station to carry out the kidnapping. They took a bus to Mahuwa after kidnapping the youngster.

Kashyap and Jeevika intended to name the boy and even considered calling him Ashish, police said. “Jeevika insisted the boy call her ‘mummy’. The accused couple was arrested under BNS Section 137(2) for kidnapping,” said DSP Singh.