A five-day-old male child was stolen by an unidentified person, suspected to be a middle-aged woman, from the mother’s bed at the maternity ward of the Government District Headquarters hospital here in the early hours Saturday.
According to information, Shabana (25) of Mangasamudram village near Chittoor delivered the child on March 14 in the hospital and is currently under admission for treatment. She informed the police and hospital staff that she had breastfed her child around 5 a.m. on Saturday, and woke up after a while only to find the child missing.
The incident created a flutter, drawing the attention of the hospital authorities and the management of Apollo Medical College, which administers the hospital under the clinical arrangement.
The Two-Town police rushed to the hospital and conducted an inquiry. Revenue Divisional Officer (Chittoor) D. Renuka held an emergency meeting with the hospital authorities and the police officials on this issue.
The police said the CCTV footage would be verified at all vital junctions in and around Chittoor to track the accused.
The police alerted all the police stations in Chittoor district, and their counterparts and border check-posts in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka borders.
