Within hours of being kidnapped from King George Hospital (KGH) in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday night, a five-day-old infant was rescued on Thursday by police in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district.
“We kept surveilling the vehicles passing through the Srikakulam highway, based on the inputs given by the Visakhapatnam police. Around 2 pm, we tracked down a car carrying three persons along with the infant, at Jarjangi village and took them into custody,” Kotabommali sub-inspector of police Ravi Kumar said.
The arrested accused were identified Madina Rajesh and Madina Lakshmi Prasanna, both from Varaka village of Kaviti block in Srikakulam district, said police while retaining the identity of third accused, a woman. The accused were handed over to the district police authorities, who in turn, took them to Visakhapatnam, where a case was registered under Section 363 (punishment for kidnapping) of theIndian Penal Code.
“The motive behind the kidnapping and how the accused were related to the infant are yet to be ascertained. Investigation is on,” Kumar said. Police said Appayamma, 21, of Routhupalem village, Padmanabham block, in Visakhapatnam district gave birth to a girl child at KGH on March 13.
Police said that on Wednesday night around 7.30 pm, two women came to the gynaecology ward in the hospital, one dressed as a nurse and the other posing as a hospital maid.
“They took away the infant on the pretext of giving the baby some treatment. Appayamma and her mother did not suspect them, however, when the duo did not return even after an hour, they alerted the other hospital staff,” the police said.
{{/usCountry}}“They took away the infant on the pretext of giving the baby some treatment. Appayamma and her mother did not suspect them, however, when the duo did not return even after an hour, they alerted the other hospital staff,” the police said.
{{/usCountry}}The hospital authorities immediately alerted the Visakhapatnam Town-1 police, who rushed to the hospital and checked the closed circuit television camera footage, during which they found the two women carrying the baby to the hospital’s main entrance. “Further investigation revealed that they boarded an auto and later, took a vehicle to proceed towards Srikakulam,” the police said.
Later, they alerted the Srikakulam police, who managed to trace the accused based on the inputs shared by the Visakhapatnam police.