An eight-month-old boy was kidnapped from the pavement near Government Royapettah Hospital early on Saturday.
The child had been asleep beside his parents, who are part of the narikurava community. His mother vaguely recalled a man carrying away the infant.
On Saturday afternoon, the child’s mother, Shanti, was inconsolable. She said her son, Karthik, was sleeping next to her on the Royapettah bus stop pavement. Her husband Venkatesan and their other three children were also alongside.
“We had come to the hospital on Friday as Karthik was bleeding from the nose. The doctor who examined him asked us to bring the child the next day. So, we decided to spend the night on the pavement,” Shanti said.
Around 12.15 a.m., Shanti and her sister Kuppamma woke up hearing the cries of the other three children and saw a man walking away with little Karthik.
“I started to scream and woke up my husband. We quickly hailed an autorickshaw and searched every street nearby but the man was nowhere to be seen,” Shanti said.
Venkatesan said after hearing of the kidnap, his relatives from different parts of the city came to the hospital on Saturday to look for the child. But it did not yield any results.
The couple lodged a complaint with the police outpost at GRH. A case of kidnap was registered and a probe is under way.
