: A six-month-old girl was allegedly abducted by a woman from north Delhi’s Bara Hindu Rao Hospital on Saturday morning. However, an extensive search effort launched by the police forced the accused to abandon the toddler near the Model Town metro station later in the day.
“The child has been handed over to her mother. She was not harmed,” said Madhur Verma, DCP (North).
Identified as Atifa, the toddler had accompanied her mother and sister who was to submit her blood sample at the hospital that is run by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and located in Malka Ganj. As they were waiting, the child began to cry.
Wrong decision
“Seeing her cry, a lab assistant advised that I hand her over for sometime to a woman standing nearby. Within seconds, the woman vanished with my child,” said Rehana.
The police were informed after a subsequent search yielded no results. Armed with the child’s picture, police personnel launched a search for her, even as messages about the incident were immediately flashed to all metro stations, railway stations, bus terminals and PCR vans in the city.
“We had also procured the details of patients who had visited the hospital in the morning,” said Esha Pandey, Additional DCP (North).
Later, the police were informed that a woman had found a child abandoned outside the Model Town metro station. The police immediately used WhatsApp to confirm that the child was the one who had been abducted. “We have leads, and hope to nab the accused soon,” said the DCP.
Prima facie, there is no evidence to suggest that the lab assistant had any connection with the accused.
Lackadaisical attitude?
Meanwhile, the incident has highlighted the hospital’s alleged inability to take quick action.
According to the police, the hospital’s entry and exit policies were not supervised.
Ms. Pandey said the police were called around 9 a.m., almost 45 minutes after the child had gone missing. “It was the girl’s mother, and not the hospital authorities, who informed us,” said the officer.
She also alleged that not even one among the 60 CCTV cameras installed at the hospital was functional. “Despite the presence of so many cameras, they were of no help to us,” said the officer.
Allegations denied
The hospital’s medical superintendent, Dr Ajit Kumar Goyal, however, dismissed the allegations. “The victim did not inform the hospital authorities. The police asked us why we did not act. We told them we were not an investigating agency,” said Mr. Goyal.
He also said he was unaware of the CCTV cameras not working. “In our knowledge, the cameras are working. In any case, it is the electric department which handles the cameras,” he said.
Hospitals in the city have always been a happy hunting ground for abductors of children. Last week, the police recovered a boy who had been kidnapped from north-west Delhi’s Babu Jagjivan Ram Hospital around nine years ago.
Not even one among the 60 CCTV cameras installed at the hospital was working, said the police
