Coimbatore District (Rural) Police traced a 5-day-old female baby who was stolen from the maternity ward of the District Headquarters Hospital at Pollachi on Sunday morning.
The police took into custody H. Shameena, 34, from Koduvayur in Palakkad district and her 15-year-old daughter early on Monday morning and handed over the newborn to the mother.
“The police teams examined visuals from nearly 250 surveillance cameras to trace the accused and the child. Our priority was to rescue the infant safely and hand it over to the mother. The mission was accomplished with the help of hospital authority, Railways and other government departments,” said Superintendent of Police V. Badrinarayanan to the media.
The mother Y. Dhivyabharathi from Kumaran Nagar, Pollachi, broke into tears as she received her daughter from a woman officer. She was admitted to the government hospital on June 27 and she gave birth to the baby in the early hours of June 29. The child was stolen from her bed early on Sunday morning, between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m.
According to the SP, 12 special teams of the police worked simultaneously to trace the accused.
The police found that the accused travelled from Pollachi to Coimbatore on a bus and then boarded a train towards Palakkad. The police teams managed to trace them to a location in Palakkad.
Preliminary investigation found that Shameena, who has two daughters and a son, separated from her husband Hakkim a few years ago and she has been in a relationship with another person, Manikandan. It was found that Shameena had lied to Manikandan that she was pregnant after the latter wanted to have a child. The woman stole the infant to show Manikandan as her her own baby, the police said.
“Our investigation has also found that Shameena had visited a government hospital in Tiruppur district, the purpose of which is yet to be found out,” said Mr. Badrinarayanan.
Shameena was produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody. The minor girl who was accused of assisting her mother in the crime was produced before the Juvenile Justice Board. She was sent to a Juvenile Observation Home, said a police officer.
The SP appealed to the public to install more surveillance cameras which play a key role in the prevention and detection of crimes. The new maternity ward at the Pollachi GH did not have surveillance cameras.
