Hyderabad: 18-month-old infant kidnapped from hospital rescued

Hyderabad, March 2:  An 18-month-old girl was rescued on Wednesday within four hours of her abduction from government-run Niloufer children's hospital.

Swift action by the police with the help of CCTV footage reunited the girl with her mother.

According to police, J. Madhavi, a resident of Shahbad in Rangareddy district, complained about her daughter Uvika going missing when she brought her to the hospital for checkup.

The woman told police that she was standing in a queue at a counter in an outpatient block and within a few minutes, she noticed that her daughter was missing.

She immediately alerted the police. Nampally inspector Khaleel Pasha said they scanned the footage from CCTV cameras in the hospital and found a woman coming out of the hospital with a child. The police showed footage to Madhavi, who identified the child as her daughter.

Police teams were immediately set out to trace the kidnapper and rescue the child. A team traced the woman near toddy compound in Attapur area. The team rescued the girl and arrested the woman.

The police released one of the CCTV footages, which show the woman sitting in an auto rickshaw along with the child.

The police official said the case was solved within four hours. They were questioning the woman to probe the motive behind the kidnap.

Meanwhile, Niloufer Hospital superintendent Dr Murali Krishna denied reports that two children died at the hospital due to negligence by hospital staff.

He said one baby, who was born premature and was admitted in the intensive care unit, died due to complications as his organs were not fully developed. The baby weighed one kg on birth in Nagarkurnool district and was brought to Niloufer in critical condition on February 28.

The superintendent said the preliminary investigation found that there is no truth in the allegation of negligence. He said premature babies have 50 per cent mortality.