Newborn kidnappers caught within six hours; the boy returned to his parents

HYDERABAD: Nampally police on Saturday rescued a newborn baby and arrested those who kidnapped him from Niloufer Hospital, less than six hours after receiving a complaint.

The baby’s parents, Haseen Begum and Ghafoor Basha, residents of Shaikapur in Zaheerabad, brought the baby to the hospital for treatment of jaundice. On Saturday around 4.15 p.m., when the parents were busy in the discharge process, a burqa-clad woman approached them and claimed to know the staff at Aarogyasri ward and offered to help them. While Haseena was signing the discharge papers, the woman ran away with the child.

After searching for the child, the parents lodged a complaint with the Nampally police around 5.15 p.m. Special teams identified and arrested the kidnappers by 10 p.m., rescued the baby and handed him over to his parents.

The kidnapper gang included prime accused Shaheen Begum of Mudigubba (M), Anantapur; Abdulla alias Venkatesh of Indranagar, First Lancer and his wife Reshma alias Renuka. Abdulla told police he had three daughters and his wife was eight months pregnant. Thinking they would see another daughter, they wanted to kidnap the boy and adopt him, police said.

After the kidnapping, they were on their way to Kurnool when the police, comprising six teams, including the IT unit, identified them from CCTV footage and collected details of the vehicle (TS 13 EQ 9216), said DCP Central zone Akshansh Yadav.

“We have informed Gadwal SP. Kurnool police later intercepted the vehicle at Pullur toll plaza and rescued the baby.” The accused were produced before the Nampally court.