Ker Health Minister orders probe into kidnapping of new-born

Kottayam: Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Friday ordered a probe into the incident of a new-born baby being kidnapped from the Medical college hospital here by a woman dressed as a nurse.

A woman, dressed as a nurse, entered the gynaecology department of the medical hospital on Thursday and walked away with the infant at around 3 PM and it took more than half an hour for the child’s mother and relatives to realise that the baby had been kidnapped.

However, police traced the infant within hours and handed it over to the mother.

A woman, Neethu (33) who abducted the baby, was arrested.

Kottayam SP D Shilpa on Friday told the media that the woman abducted the child to show her lover, Ibrahim Badusha, an Ernakulam native that she had delivered a child. Police said Neethu, a married woman, was in a relationship with Badusha and became pregnant. However, she suffered a miscarriage but did not inform about it to Badusha. She had told him that she became pregnant and used to blackmail him when he decided to marry another girl, police said.

”Her husband is in a different country. But she got into another relationship here and told him (Badusha) that she was pregnant. To show him that she had delivered a child, she decided to abduct one and show him,” Kottayam SP Shilpa told the media. The SP said Neethu reached Kottayam on January 4 and took a room there. ”She visited the maternity ward and identified one child. She took the child to her room and clicked a photo and sent it to her lover. That was the reason behind the abduction,” Shilpa said.

Police have also registered a case against Badusha after Neethu alleged that he had allegedly cheated her after borrowing over Rs 30 lakh.

Badusha is now in police custody. Meanwhile, George has directed all the hospitals to take action to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the state.

”A probe has been ordered and the Medical Education department Joint Director will conduct the investigation and has been directed to submit a report as early as possible,” a release issued by the minister’s office said.

The Medical College Police was informed about the abduction at around 4 PM on Thursday and it immediately swung into action and sent messages to all the police stations in the district and around the hospital.

All vehicles arriving from the medical college area were stopped and inspected by police teams and even autorickshaw drivers, ambulance drivers, locals and medical shop staff in the vicinity of the medical college were told to keep an eye out for the baby, police said. Subsequently, an autorickshaw driver informed the police that a woman with a baby was seen entering the Park Hotel which was just 100 metres from the hospital. Police reached the hotel, arrested the woman and rushed the baby back to its mother at the hospital.