Mumbai: The crime branch has arrested the estranged wife and mother-in-law of filmmaker Faruk Kabir on charges of ‘stealing’ his newborn daughter and trying to flee the country. They also rescued the baby.

On December 21, Kabir, the director of ‘Khuda Haafiz’, lodged an FIR with Versova police station against his wife Sanam, an Uzbekistan national, her mother Dilfuza and her stepfather Tejas Khanna.

“Inspector Daya Nayak and his team traced Sanam alias Shoksanam, Dilfuza and the baby to Amritsar. They brought them to Mumbai and handed them over to the Versova police for further investigation,” deputy commissioner of police (crime) Raj Tilak Raushan said. A search is still on for Khanna, a police officer said.

Kabir and Sanam got married in Uzbekistan last year and had been living in India since then. Problems arose in December when after the delivery of their daughter, Sanam and her parents insisted on getting Uzbek nationality for her.

Faruk, in his complaint to the Versova police, had alleged that Khanna tried to pressurize the hospital staff to mention Uzbekistan as the newborn’s nationality. He had further alleged that his wife and her parents fled with the baby, along with the latter's birth certificate and other documents and gold ornaments worth Rs 7 lakh.

Kabir had also filed a habeas corpus in the Bombay High Court to produce his daughter and allow her to stay with him. Versova police, in its reply to the court, had said that they have traced Sanam to Amritsar and they have notified the Foreign Regional Registration Office about the matter. The court had then directed the police to take necessary steps.