Newborn stolen from govt hospital in Indore, kin alleges negligence

A woman claiming to be a nurse has allegedly kidnapped a newborn boy from the government-run Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital (MYH) in Madhya Pradesh. The police said that the investigation in the matter has been taken up and the CCTV footage of the hospital and nearby areas were being checked to track the movement of the woman.

Indore: A woman, allegedly pretending to be a nurse, stole a newborn baby from her mother and grandmother at the Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Indore, police said on Monday.

According to the police, the incident which took place on November 15 was captured in the CCTV camera installed at the hospital.

"We have received information about the kidnapping of a one-day-old newborn baby from MY Hospital. A case has been registered. A woman around the age of 23 to 24 years had told the grandmother that the baby's heartbeat is erratic and a check-up was needed," Superintendent of Police (SP) Vijay Khatri told reporters here.

He said that the grandmother of the baby accompanied the woman for some time, but the accused woman later slipped away on the pretext of check-up.

"The family members then searched the hospital, but could not find the baby. The woman stealing the baby was seen wearing a Kurti and leggings. She was also wearing a facemask due to COVID-19 pandemic and therefore the family could not see her face. The mother and grandmother of the baby thought she was a nurse," Khatri said.

The police said that the investigation in the matter has been taken up and the CCTV footage of the hospital and nearby areas were being checked to track the movement of the woman.

The father of the newborn, Lokesh, is a resident of Pancham. He said that the incident took place in his absence, after he went home at 4 am on November 15 and came back with some fresh clothes for his hospitalised wife at around 7 am.

"The baby was okay when I left. But when I came back, my mother-in-law was looking all over the place for the baby. When I asked, she told me what happened. We then looked all over the hospital to find the baby," Lokesh Biyani said.

He said that hospital officials have informed him that a girl was caught in the CCTV footage stealing the baby. However, he alleged negligence on part of the hospital and raised questions as to how the woman was allowed by security guards to leave with the baby.

(ANI)