“I am so happy to get my baby back,” said Runa, the mother who beat the odds and was reunited with her child 170 hours after it was stolen from a neonatal ward.
The baby’s abduction was caught on Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) surveillance cameras and enabled Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) to follow clues that lead to Kalameshwar village in Board Bazar of Gazipur, where the baby was recovered at 3:30am yesterday, the director of RAB Legal and Media wing, Mufti Mahmud Khan, said.
RAB arrested Rasheda Khanam alias Parvin, 48 and Bely Akhter alias Rahima, 45, who are alleged to be involved in the abduction of the newborn baby.
Parvin, a midwife and Gazipur pharmacy owner, is alleged to be involved in the theft and sale of newborn babies, as well as in the kidnap and ransom of newborns.
Parvin sold the baby she had stolen from the DMCH ward to Bely Akhter alias Rahima, the wife of Sona Mia of Gazipur, for Tk40,000, law enforcers said.
The RAB media director told journalists that the elite force was investigating whether DMCH staff were involved in the theft of the baby.
DMCH director, Brigadier General Mustafizur Rahman, at a press briefing organised after the recovery of the infant, said the hospital authorities could do nothing if patients’ families were not careful enough to prevent kidnappings.
He thanked the media, saying it played a vital role in rescuing the missing child.
When the DMCH director was asked by reporters how RAB had assured the identification of the rescued child without conducting a DNA test, the hospital director claimed he was one hundred percent sure the child had been correctly identified.
He said the circumstances of the crime, the CCTV footage, the connection of the suspect’s name and mobile number, and the circumstances of the arrest of the suspect all suggested that the recovered baby was indeed the stolen child.
At one stage the DMCH head said if confusion arose about the child’s identity then the hospital could conduct a DNA test. The hospital director said the hospital would not do it voluntarily.
Successful operation
In carrying out its investigation, RAB collected the CCTV footage, and the name and mobile number of the suspected baby thief, Parvin, from the DMCH Ansar force register book where she had signed in. The number was tracked to Gazipur.
The DMCH director yesterday called the mobile number and the woman who received the call said her name was Parvin and that she was located in Gazipur. The number was found to be switched off a few minutes later.
RAB 3 then launched a drive at 3:30am yesterday morning and arrested Parvin. According to her statement, law enforcement officers then raided Rahima’s house and rescued the child.
The DMCH director told media that the hospital was taking steps to protect mothers and newborns from child thieves.
The hospital had removed ayas, or ward maids, from the labour ward. An identification sticker system for both the mother and newborn children will be introduced and all movements in and out of the ward will require the matching of stickers.
Female Ansar will remain on-duty 24 hours a day in the labour ward, he said. Nurses will now register and preserve the details of the mother and children.
Mustafizur Rahman said the DMCH is a 2450-bed hospital operating on the staff level of an 800-bed hospital, putting tremendous strain on the system.
He claimed his staff were not involved in the baby theft.
