Two-month-old boy stolen from BMC health centre

Exactly a month after a two-month-old boy was stolen by a burqa-clad woman from the BMC-run VN Desai Hospital in Santacruz, a two-month-old boy was on Monday kidnapped from a civic health centre in Govandi by a woman who was also clad in a burqa.

Exactly a month after a two-month-old boy was stolen by a burqa-clad woman from the BMC-run VN Desai Hospital in Santacruz, a two-month-old boy was on Monday kidnapped from a civic health centre in Govandi by a woman who was also clad in a burqa.

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The two-month-old boy, Shahid Tahir, had gone to the centre in Surya Nagar with his mother, Munni Khatun, 27, and his eight-year-old brother Mohammed at 11.45am on Monday, an officer from Shivaji Nagar police station said.

As Khatun stood in a queue to get medicines for her sons, both of whom had cold and fever, Mohammed waited at a distance, taking care of his younger brother. A burqa-clad woman then requested him to get paan for her from a paan shop nearby and said she would take care of the baby till he returned. When Mohammed came back after 15 minutes, the woman had disappeared, the officer said.

After the Santacruz incident, the BMC had put up posters at civic hospitals and at its primary health centres, including
the one in Surya Nagar, saying parents should not give their children to strangers.

The Govandi centre, however, did not have a CCTV network. “In both cases, the child was in the custody of the family and not the hospital,” said additional municipal commissioner, Manisha Mhaiskar.

After Khatun, her elder son and the health centre’s officials had failed to locate the boy, the parents approached the Shivaji Nagar police. Sub-inspector S Avte said a case has been registered against unknown persons.