Although four days have passed since a two-day-old child was reportedly stolen from the neonatal ward of the DMCH, no progress has been made so far in identifying the alleged kidnapper or taking substantial action against security officials whose alleged negligence allowed the crime to take place.
Following the incident, the Dhaka Medical College Hospital authority formed a three-member investigation committee headed by gynaecology department’s Associate Professor Dr Afroza Kutubi. But sources said the members of the probe body were yet to hold a meeting. The committee would finally sit together today, the sources added.
However, Dr Chowdhury Taslima Nasrin, resident surgeon of gynaecology department and a member of the probe body, told the Dhaka Tribune the committee had already collected statements from the parents and grandmother of the missing child, as well as other patients at the ward.
Sirajul Islam, officer-in-charge of Shahbagh police station, where a case had been filed in this regard, admitted that no progress has so far been made in recovering the child. The CCTV snapshots of the woman who allegedly stole the child lacked clarity and the police was now searching for clearer pictures of the culprit, he added.
As a punitive measure following the incident, the Ansar member, who was on duty at the time of the incident but was allegedly absent at his post, has only been reassigned without being handed any suspension.
On August 23, the DMCH authority however sent a letter to the platoon commander of the Ansar camp at the hospital, seeking explanation regarding the different incidents of stealing taking place inside the hospital premises. Currently 155 Ansar personnel are working in different wards of the DMCH.
Earlier, a separate probe committee, which was formed after the disappearance of a newborn from the hospital in March, had made several recommendations to prevent the repeat of such incident. However, the inquiry report had allegedly not been submitted properly or circulated among the people concerned.
Among the recommendations were directives on barring any child to be taken out of the hospital gate without proper documents or release order, preventing mothers of the newborns from giving their child to a stranger and barring everyone except the legal guardian from entering the gynaecology ward.
Dr Mushfiqur Rahman, head of the previous probe committee and also deputy director of the hospital, claimed that their report had been properly submitted and seen by the hospital Director Brig Gen Dr Mustafizur Rahman.
Visiting the neonatal ward yesterday, the Dhaka Tribune found that security had been tightened following the stealing of the baby, with on-duty Ansar members verifying the identities of people entering ward number 213 – the place where the baby boy was taken.
Several mothers of newborns, who are currently admitted to the hospital, said they could not sleep at night out of fear that their child would also be stolen.
Upon being informed by on-duty doctors that she might be released today, Runa, the mother of the kidnapped child, said: “I will not leave the hospital without getting my son back. I would have left the hospital on Thursday if one of my twin sons had not been taken from me. How could I return home without him?”
The twin brother of the missing child was asleep in his mother’s lap at the time. Runa said the twins were named Yaseen Hossain and Eklas Hossain. Pointing to the child in her lap, she said Yaseen is still here but Eklas has gone missing.
Runa’s mother Gulnur Begum said the family was ecstatic after the birth of the twin babies, who were the first children of their generation to be born in the family. However, the joy soon turned to tragedy after one of the child was kidnapped, she added.
On August 21, a woman befriended the mother of the baby before carrying the infant out of the hospital in broad daylight, in plain view of law enforcement personnel and under the noses of closed-circuit camera staff.
At least five children have been stolen from the DMCH wards in the last three years. Not one child had ever been recovered.
Hospital authorities have formed probe bodies, increased security and set up CCTVs to clamp down on the crime but they have not been successful.