A 20-day-old ailing baby boy was allegedly stolen from the lap of his mother by an unidentified woman at the Government area hospital in Bhadrachalam on Tuesday afternoon.
The shocking incident took place at the outpatient (OP) counter of the hospital in the afternoon.
The CCTV cameras installed at the entrance of the hospital could not capture the incident due to technical snags, sources said.
Soyam Shantamma, of Gollagutta in East Godavari district of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, came to the hospital with her ailing 20-day-old baby boy, accompanied by her mother.
An unidentified woman allegedly approached Shantamma and took the latter’s baby on the pretext of soothing the intermittently crying infant, before vanishing from the spot.
When Shantamma’s mother returned from the OP counter after the registration process, she found the former searching for her baby on the hospital premises.
They approached the hospital staff, who in turn alerted the local police about the incident.
The police reportedly obtained vital clues about the unidentified woman, who was caught on a CCTV camera moving at the reception counter of a nearby private hospital with the abducted baby in her lap an hour later.
However, the baby boy remained untraced till reports last came in.
When contacted, Bhadrachalam Area hospital superintendent Dr Koti Reddy said Shantamma came to the hospital along with her ailing baby for treatment.
Quoting eyewitness accounts, he said the incident occurred when Shantamma’s mother had gone to the OP counter leaving the former and the baby at the entrance hall.
