Tamil Nadu: Police arrest 5 for kidnapping 2-day-old baby from hospital

A 2-day-old baby, who was kidnapped from Coimbatore Government hospital, was found by the police, within six hours.

Mother of the new born, Jothi was admitted to the hospital and gave birth to a girl child on November 8. Jothi was then moved to the the post-natal ward, where she met Archana, who claimed that her child was in the ICU and befriended her.

When Jothi had to go for a routine check-up on Thursday, she asked Archana if she could watch the baby, for which Archana agreed. When Jothi came back from the check-up, she couldn't find her baby, nor Archana. Jothi panicked and the hospital authorities were immediately informed.

Police registered a case and when they checked the CCTV footage, they found that five people including three women were seen carrying the baby away, on a hired car. "She said her name was Archana. Her relatives were also with her. I thought she was also here for delivery," said Jothi.

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Jothi and her husband Rajan, who work as daily wagers, were stunned to know that the hospital had no records of Archana, even though she was roaming around post-natal ward for 2 days.

TRACING KIDNAPPERS

Tracing the call taxi through which Archana and her relatives had left the hospital, police were able to trace the kidnappers and apprehended them at Vellikinaru. The baby was kept in a small house. Police arrested Archana, her husband Naresh, Archana's mother, her father Ramalingam and Naresh's mother Gomathi.

The child was returned to Jothi who was still at the hospital.

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This is the third incident in Tamil Nadu in the past two months, where infants have been kidnapped from high security post-natal wards.

A week ago, police arrested a gang of seven who were involved in baby kidnapping near Thirunelveli. They were caught when they tried to sell a one-month-old baby for Rs 2.5 lakh.