6-hour-old infant stolen by unidentified woman from Thane civil hospital

Police say mother’s bed was close to the exit in labour ward and it looks like a planned crime

Within six hours of his birth, an infant was stolen by an unidentified woman at Thane civil hospital’s labour ward early on Sunday.

CCTV footage showed a woman in pink sari fleeing the hospital with the baby. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The police have obtained CCTV footage of the spot from the hospital and the footage shows a woman in a pink sari entering the labour ward around 3am on Sunday and fleeing the spot within seconds with the baby boy, who was not even one day old.

A case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code has been registered with the Thane Nagar police station.

D Swami, deputy commissioner of police, zone-1, said, “The footage shows that the woman took the child from the first bed of the ward and immediately left the hospital. The victim’s bed was close to the exit door and we suspect it is a planned crime. We are investigating the matter to nab the accused.”

The mother Mohini Bhovar, 19, had come to the hospital on Saturday evening and was immediately taken into the operation theatre for delivery. The stolen baby’s family resides in Bhiwandi and the father of the child works in a power loom factory there.

“My wife was alone when a woman came and took the child away. It was later when we could not find the child that we contacted the hospital and realised that the child was missing,” said Mohan Bhovar, 24, father of the child.

She said there were two nurses and a doctor in the labour ward when the incident occurred but they were attending a patient who had gone into labour. “It’s been around four months that we have given an application to the deputy director of health services to sanction around 50 people for security. We are hoping that it would be sanctioned soon,” she said.