Tamil Nadu: Newborn girl abducted from Pollachi Government Hospital by two women

Coimbatore: In an unfortunate incident, a newborn baby has been abducted by two women wearing hijabs posing as attendants at a Government hospital, Pollachi.

The parents have been identified as 28-year-old Yunis, the father and 25-year-old Divya Bharati, the mother. Both are residents of Kumaran Nagar in Pollachi. The incident took place when Divya gave birth to a girl on Wednesday morning and due to her deteriorated health condition after delivery, the child was taken away.

The nurses shifted the child to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). After the improvement of Divya's health, the baby was given to her care and she was shifted to a paediatric ward on Saturday. 

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At 5:30 am on Sunday, two women wearing hijabs entered the hospital and kidnapped the baby in a cloth bag while her mother was sleeping. Upon waking up and noticing that her child was missing, she immediately alerted the hospital staff.

The family blamed the hospital for lack of security management and no CCTV which could have captured the incident. As a result, questions have been raised about the careless act played by hospital staff, as two doctors, four nurses, and night security were present during the incident.

The family then contacted the Pollachi East police and they immediately came to the hospital. Other police stations were also notified of the incident and an enquiry was conducted by the Senior officials from the police and health department.

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Since no CCTV was there at the hospital, the police investigated the CCTV outside the hospital of a private building. The CCTV footage showed two women crossing the hospital gate while holding the child in their hands and then taking an autorickshaw to the bus stand, from where they boarded a bus. They were later seen alighting at Olavakkode Railway Station in Palakkad at 9:30 am on Sunday. However, finally, the police traced them at the railway station and nabbed the kidnappers. The Pollachi and Palakkad police together carried out the entire mission and rescued the child.

The child was handed over back to the parents and an investigation is underway to take action against the culprits.

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Coimbatore Rural SP V Badri Narayanan told TNIE, "There were 10 special teams working on the case and they have examined video footage of around 200 CCTV cameras."

R Vellai Nataraj, a member of the hospital's patient welfare association, said, "Newly constructed buildings - outpatient ward and maternity ward - started functioning two years ago. But no CCTV cameras are installed in the building and there is no police outpost. Security lapse is the reason for the issue."