Mobile signals have helped the Chittoor police trace and restore a five-day-old baby boy to his mother within 24 hours of being stolen from the government hospital here.
Shabana (25) of Mangasamudram village, near Chittoor, had delivered the baby on March 14. Even as she was undergoing treatment in the hospital, an unidentified woman stole the infant from the ward in the early hours of March 19.
Following a complaint, the police swung into action and took a woman suspect into custody. As the accused shared the mobile number of a couple from Visakhapatnam to whom she had handed over the baby, the police, with the help of the mobile signals, traced the couple and the infant near Chilakaluripet in Guntur district late in the evening.
An alert sounded by the Chittoor police prompted the Guntur Urban Police to intercept an APSRTC bus and arrest the two accused and rescue the child.
Deputy SP (Law and Order) N. Sudhakar Reddy told The Hindu that a special party had been constituted immediately after the abduction of the child from the hospital.
“After verifying the CC camera footage, a woman of Chittoor town was taken into custody. She confessed to lifting the child and carrying it in a bag from the ward as part of a deal she struck with the Visakhapatnam-based couple. Fortunately, she provided us the mobile number of the woman to whom the child was handed over near the hospital,” Mr. Sudhakar said.
Upon tracing the mobile signal near Chilakaluripet on the NH track, our Guntur counterparts were alerted, and they could arrest the accused and rescue the child, he said.
The child was immediately taken to the Government General Hospital in Guntur. A sub-inspector and his team from Chittoor left for Guntur and brought the infant back in a healthy condition in the early hours of Sunday and handed it over to its mother.
“A thorough probe will be undertaken to ascertain the modus operandi of the accused, and whether they are a part of an organised gang involved in the abduction of children elsewhere in the State.” Mr. Sudhakar said.
Following the incident, digital surveillance would be intensified in the hospitals in Chittoor. All the maternity units, both government and private, would be asked to install CC cameras and strictly monitor the movement of strangers in the wards, he said.
