April 16--The man who authorities said abandoned his child in a trash can and fled the state is being held in Cook County Jail following his first local court appearance Wednesday.
A judge set bail at $300,000 for Faiz Ikramulla, 35, who is charged with aggravated kidnapping after authorities said he abandoned his 3-year-old daughter in a Prospect Heights forest preserve last week and drove away.
The girl was able to climb out and make her way to a nearby busy intersection, where onlookers found her crying and waving her arms, police said.
Once the girl was identified, the state Department of Children and Family Services placed her with relatives. The agency has opened an investigation into allegations of neglect by Ikramulla. The girl's mother, who was in the process of filing missing person reports on both the father and the daughter when the girl was found, is not a suspect in the case, authorities said.
The girl has since been returned to her mother, DCFS spokesman Andrew Flach said Wednesday.
Following the incident, the mother filed an order of protection against Ikramulla, court records show.
Authorities allege that Ikramulla, of Round Lake, drove to Michigan after leaving the girl in the forest preserve. On April 8, police in Michigan responded to a 911 call of a possibly suicidal man on the expressway. They identified that man as Ikramulla and took him into custody. Cook County authorities issued an arrest warrant for Ikramulla, who waived extradition.
Ikramulla was free on bail in another case at the time of the alleged kidnapping. He was charged last year in an attack on police in Portage, Ind., and ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation in that case, which is pending.
Ikramulla graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in electrical engineering in 2000 and received an MBA from Marquette University, according to records and a university spokesman.
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