A newborn girl who was stolen by an unidentified woman from the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) at Sonepur on Saturday morning was found dumped on the roadside near Saradhapali under Pratappur Police Station on Sunday.
Sonepur Police rescued the baby girl from the roadside and rushed her to the DHH for treatment where the mother of the infant, Santoshini identified her newborn.
Meanwhile, the health condition of the newborn is stable and she has been handed over to her mother, said reports.
Sonepur Police had swung into action after receiving a complaint from the father of the baby girl, Gajendra Tandi of Sandha village under Birmaharajpur police limits of the district, yesterday.
As per the FIR, Tandi’s wife Santoshini was admitted to the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department of the DHH on Friday after she complained of labour pain. She gave birth to a baby girl later in the day and as there was no bed at the DHH, she and her child were forced to lie on the verandah of the department for post-delivery treatment.
The family members further said while Santoshini had gone to the bathroom after handing over the baby to her mother-in-law, a woman allegedly came and asked to hand over the baby to her for administering some vaccine. Accordingly, Santoshini’s mother-in-law gave the baby to the unknown woman. Though the family members of Tandi tried to trace the woman, she was found nowhere.
Police, while investigating the case, had found CCTV footage in which Santoshini’s mother-in-law was seen handing over the infant to a woman. However, the exact reason for which she gave the baby to the woman has not been ascertained yet.
Sonepur SP, Sitaram Satpathy informed, “The newborn girl has been rescued and admitted to the hospital for treatment. We suspect that the baby girl might have been sold to someone and either her grandmother or any of her relatives might have involvement in this. However, anything cannot be clearly said now as the matter is still under investigation,” added Satpathy.