During the rescue of an infant stolen from the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, the police also rescued a boy from the main accused, who posed as an advocate or assistant commissioner of police to enter the hospitals at will. The main accused, Manimekalai, 29, of Guhai, Salem, and two of her accomplices are behind bars.
“When we received the complaint from the victim Manimegalai, 22, we had no clue as to how her child was kidnapped from the hospital,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (North) R. Sudhakar.
“She only told us that a woman known to her took the baby to another hospital under the pretext of making sure the child was healthy,” he said. It was only after identifying her accomplice, who acted as an intermediary in the kidnap, did the special teams follow the accused from Chennai to Salem and rescue the infant.
The victim, a native of Chengam, gave birth to a girl at the Government Maternity Hospital, Egmore, a few days ago. The victim told staff at the hospital that she was ready to sell her infant for money as she was struggling to raise her two-and-a-half year-old daughter without her husband.
Soon, she started receiving calls on her phone with offers of money, the police said.
Taking advantage of her her plight, Sumitra, 33, of Red Hills, a staff member of a private security firm, took the child before discharge and handed over the baby to the main accused.
Manimekalai told the victim that her sister had no children and even promised her that she could even stay with her sister’s family. Soon, she got her discharged from the hospital and put her up in a lodge with her two children for three days.
Later, the accused Manimekalai took the victim and her daughters in two cars under the pretext of a medical test to the government hospital. After leaving the victim and her older daughter near the scan centre, the accused escaped with the 15-day-old infant in a call taxi to Koyambedu from where she left to Salem.
“The victim did not realise that her daughter had been kidnapped in front of her eyes. She also did not know where to lodge a complaint,” said Mr. Sudhakar.
The trio who took the child — Manimekalai, Sumitra and their accomplice Ishwarya, 25, of Guhai, Salem, were arrested and remanded in judicial custody.
Stolen from train
The police also rescued a boy called Sainath from the main accused. “She claims to have to stolen him from a train somewhere near Tirupur last year. However, no case was registered with the Government Railway police. Her second husband was under the impression that the boy was her child from her first husband,” said the Joint Commissioner.
Police are also checking if Manimekalai is involved in any other kidnappings of children. A few more persons involved in the child trafficking network are also being probed, the police said.
