Mumbai
A seven-month-old baby boy was kidnapped from the premises of the Cama and Albless Hospital in south Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon.
Updated : Mar 01, 2012, 12:32 AM IST
A seven-month-old baby boy was kidnapped from the premises of the Cama and Albless Hospital in south Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon.
The police sources said that a woman, aged around 40 years, befriended the baby’s mother and kidnapped him.
According to Rajshri Katke, medical superintendent at Cama Hospital, 20-year-old Durga Kale, a resident of slums at the Churchgate area, went to the hospital around 11am. Durga’s husband, Murli, works with a towing van agency.
“The woman had come to the paediatric OPD as her child, Vishwanath, was suffering from skin rashes. The doctors told her to admit the child to the hospital,” said Katke.
The Azad Maidan police said that when Durga was sitting in an open space near the OPD, a 40-year-old woman befriended her.
“Durga was weeping after she learnt that her son would have to be admitted to the hospital. The woman, who was sitting beside Kale, consoled her and even got her vada pav and chai,” said a police officer.
The woman befriended Durga saying she knew her husband’s older brother Venkatesh.
Later, the police picked up Ventatesh for questioning. “Durga thought the woman knew her family members and started talking to her,” said Venkatesh’s wife, Malan, a resident of Sathe Nagar in Mankhurd.
Malan was waiting at the police station till late Wednesday evening, waiting her husband to get his statement recorded with the police and get a clean chit in the case.
Malan said that Durga left her baby with the woman twice and went to make enquiries in the hospital. When she went the third time and returned, she found her son and the woman missing from the place.
This incident occurred around 12.15pm. After searching the entire hospital premises, Kale reported the matter to the police around 2pm.
The police have formed six teams to trace the baby. While one police team checked the hospital premises, another team checked trains at Mumbai Central station.
Ashok Thube, police inspector of Azad Maidan, said a case under section 363 of Indian Penal Code (kidnapping) has been registered against the woman. “The incident didn’t happen inside the hospital as the baby was not admitted to the hospital. We have provided our CCTV footages to the police,” said Katke.
But the police said that the CCTV camera has not captured the kidnapper’s face.