Newborn stolen from Ludhiana Civil Hospital, accused couple arrested

The accused persons had planned to sell the boy to a childless couple for Rs 5 lakh, police said.

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A complaint was received at 5 am that a four-day-old boy was kidnapped by unidentified persons from a hospital. The accused sprayed some chemical on the face of the infant’s mother, causing her to fall unconscious, Police Commissioner Mandeep Singh Sidhu told reporters here.

After receiving the information, four special teams were formed to catch the culprits, he said.

The teams identified the accused after going through the CCTV footage and other technical data. The accused persons, a couple from the Kara Bara area here, wanted to make money by selling the boy.

As per a recent media report in HT, the accused woman, Preeti, is a nurse at a private hospital, while Kumar is an auto driver. The police also suspect that the accused themselves have two daughters. It is suspected that Preeti had come in contact with the buyer of the newborn at the private hospital where she works as a nurse. 

The police have lodged an FIR against the accused under sections 365 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). 

Shabnam, identified as resident of Karabara, had given birth to baby boy through Cesarean section after three daughters. She alleged that the accused sprayed some chemical on the face following which she went into slumber for a few minutes.

After she gained consciousness, she was shocked when she did not find her son on the bed and raised an alarm.

The accused couple were arrested within 10 hours of the incident. They had planned to sell the infant to a childless couple for Rs 5 lakh, the police said. 

The child was handed over to his parents, who hail from Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, they said.

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