Within 12 hours of an infant being stolen, the police detained a 52-year-old woman who allegedly made away with the 11-month-old boy from the pavement near the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital early on Sunday.
The police said the baby, Agilan, was the second son of N. Anand and Latha, 20. The couple has an elder son Kishore, 2.
The family, along with relatives, lives on the pavement in front of the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, near Mint Street.
On Sunday night, the family was sleeping. Around 1.30 a.m, a family member spotted a woman pass by. “It was my father who saw the woman. Initially, he thought she had stolen something from us. However, he noticed that she was not carrying anything in her hand. He then went to sleep,” said Mr. Ramesh, their relative.
On Sunday morning, when Mr. Anand got up and found Agilan was missing. “We immediately informed the Flower Bazaar police station,” Mr. Ramesh said.
Swift action
When the police questioned autorickshaw drivers near Mint Street, a driver, Ezhumalai, said he had dropped a woman with a baby at Adyar. “At the Adyar bus stand, one of the conductors said she boarded his bus and got down near Kannagi Nagar,” said a senior police officer. The investigating team scanned CCTV footage from the locality. “We spotted the woman on a CCTV camera in the locality. Her name is Safiya, 52, and she is from Ezhil Nagar,” the officer said. The police are questioning her to ascertain the motive behind stealing the boy.
