Kerala Health Minister Veena George ordered probe into the new-born baby being kidnapped. (File)
Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Friday ordered a probe into the incident of a new-born baby being kidnapped from the Medical college hospital here by a woman dressed as a nurse.
A woman, dressed as a nurse entered the gynaecology department of the medical hospital on Thursday and walked away with the infant at around 3 PM and it took more than half an hour for the child's mother and relatives to realise the baby had been kidnapped.
However, the infant was traced within hours and handed over to the mother.
A woman, Neethu (33) who abducted the baby, was arrested.
"We have arrested the woman. Her friend, an Ernakulam resident, has also been taken into custody. We are interrogating both of them. Further details will be out soon," police told PTI.
Sources told PTI that the woman abducted the child to blackmail her lover by claiming that it was his child in order to force him to marry her. Apparently, the woman was pregnant earlier but suffered a miscarriage. She did not inform the miscarriage incident to her lover.
Meanwhile, Ms George has directed all the hospitals to take action to ensure that such incidents are not repeated in the state.
"A probe has been ordered and Medical Education department Joint Director will conduct the investigation and has been directed to submit a report as early as possible," a release issued by the minister's office said.
The Medical College Police was informed about the abduction at around 4 PM yesterday and it immediately swung into action and sent messages to all the police stations in the district and around the hospital.
All vehicles arriving from the medical college area were stopped and inspected by police teams and even autorickshaw drivers, ambulance drivers, locals and medical shop staff in the vicinity of the medical college were told to keep an eye out for the baby, police said.
Subsequently, an autorickshaw driver informed the police that a woman with a baby was seen entering the Park Hotel which was just 100 metres from the hospital.
Police reached the hotel, arrested the woman and rushed the baby back to its mother at the hospital.