The Agripada police suspect that Hazel Corriea, who was arrested on Friday for allegedly kidnapping a five-day-old baby from BYL Nair Hospital, tried to commit a similar crime at Bhatia Hospital earlier on Thursday.
Dahisar resident Sheetal Salvi’s son went missing from ward no. 7 at Nair Hospital on Thursday afternoon, and Ms. Corriea was caught on camera leaving with the baby. On Friday, the Vakola police arrested her from VN Desai Hospital in Santacruz and handed her over to the Agripada police. The baby was returned to his parents.
Investigating officers said they tracked Ms. Corriea’s movements on Thursday using the citywide CCTV network and found that Nair Hospital was not her first stop. An officer, who was part of the investigation, said, “After scanning footage from scores of cameras, we spotted her alighting from a taxi outside Nair Hospital. We tracked the movement of the taxi and found her getting into the vehicle at a signal outside Bhatia Hospital in Tardeo.”
The Mumbai Crime Branch also scanned the CCTV footage and spotted the same taxi. Using the licence plate number, they Crime Branch traced the driver and picked him up from his house in Worli on Friday night. He was brought to the Crime Branch Unit III for questioning.
A Crime Branch officer said, “The driver confirmed that the woman hailed his taxi at the signal outside Bhatia Hospital. He was questioned at length till we were sure he did not have any role in the crime.” The driver was later handed over to the Agripada police for another round of questioning.
The police are now investigating whether the accused tried to enter Bhatia Hospital with the intention of kidnapping a baby. An officer said, “Bhatia is a private hospital and Ms. Corriea would have found it hard to enter it. So we suspect that she decided to try her luck at Nair Hospital.” Inquiries indicate she was familiar with the hospital and the security arrangements in place.” The police are scanning CCTV footage near Bhatia Hospital to verify this angle.
