Father of abandoned girl charged with kidnapping

The father of a 3-year-old girl found wandering alone Tuesday in Prospect Heights kidnapped the toddler from her mother before abandoning her in a forest preserve, according to Cook County Sheriff's police.

A $300,000 arrest warrant was issued Thursday for Faiz Ikramulla, 35, on a charge of aggravated kidnapping stemming from the allegations, according to the sheriff's office.

Cara Smith, a sheriff's police spokeswoman, said Ikramulla took steps to conceal Aliya when he left her in the forest preserve near Prospect Heights.

“He laid her down, covered her with his coat and left,” Smith said.

Ikramulla, of Round Lake, is in custody at the Van Buren County Jail in Michigan, sheriff's police said.

The girl, named Aliya, was found walking alone, crying and waving her hands, at about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday near Milwaukee Avenue and Palatine Road, authorities said. She could provide her first name, but no other information to help police identify her or track down her parents.

A friend of the girl's mother later saw a photo of Aliya on a news report and came forward to identify her, police said.

Sheriff's detectives later learned that on the night Aliya was discovered, her mother was in the process of filing a missing person's report police for the girl and Ikramulla with police in Round Lake, where all three live together.

Smith said after Aliya was identified, police reached out to other law enforcement agencies. Ikramulla later was detained by police in Michigan.

Ikramulla's return to Cook County is pending an extradition. If found guilty of the aggravated kidnapping charge, he would face a mandatory sentence of six to 30 years in prison.