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Newborn abducted from Bathinda civil hospital rescued; woman, daughter held
The newborn abducted from the Bathinda civil hospital on Sunday was rescued within 72 hours and his kidnappers -- a mother-daughter duo -- were arrested from Maluka village, Bathinda police said on Wednesday
The newborn abducted from the Bathinda civil hospital on Sunday was rescued within 72 hours and his kidnappers -- a mother-daughter duo -- were arrested from Maluka village, Bathinda police said on Wednesday.
The accused are Simranjit Kaur and her mother Kulwinder Kaur, who were taken into custody on Tuesday night, the police said. Simranjit had posed as a nurse and taken the baby away on the pretext of vaccination.
District health authorities said the child was healthy and safely reunited with his parents at the Shaheed Bhai Mani Singh Civil Hospital after medical examination.
Bathinda senior superintendent of police (SSP) J Elanchezhian said the women were arrested after receiving inputs from some social activists from Kothe Guru village.
Accused took away the child to trick her in-laws: SSP
“We have detained one Jaswinder Singh, a relative of the accused from Bathinda’s Pratap Nagar locality, for questioning. Our preliminary investigation revealed that the accused abducted the newborn to trick her estranged in-laws into thinking that he was her son. Simranjit’s child had in fact died last month, a few days after his birth,” the SSP said.
Bathinda civil surgeon Dr TS Dhillon said Simranjit had given birth to a baby boy on November 2.
“As per the hospital’s record, Simranjit’s child was on November 7 referred to Guru Gobind Singh Government Medical College, Faridkot, for treatment of a medical condition he was suffering from. We have no information when the child died,” Dhillon added.
The police have ruled out the human trafficking angle.
“Simranjit is going through a matrimonial dispute. She concealed the news of her child’s death from her in-laws for unspecified reasons. As she was to appear in a court case, Simranjit and her mother hatched a plan to abduct a baby to produce him before her in-laws as her son,” the SSP said.
How a social media campaign helped in tracing baby
Within hours of the crime, photos and videos of Simranjit surfaced on social media platforms. These visuals were sourced from the footage of CCTV cameras installed at the civil hospital.
Lauding the role of various social organisations and individuals in amplifying the details of the abductors, the SSP said, “The duo had taken the baby to Pratap Nagar and stayed there overnight. The next day, their relative Jaswinder dropped them at Bhagta Bhai Ka area. We have leads that the accused women were also involved in criminal activities and our teams are verifying the details.”
