Hyderabad: In the second week of July, 40-year-old M. Narasimha and his wife were playing with their “new child” in their house at Rajendranagar when the South Zone police arrived. The cops arrested Narasimha and took away the child. The Dabeerpura police station officials told his wife that the child had been stolen from another couple 10 days ago.
The couple had been childless for 20 years and had tried to adopt for more than three years, but hadn’t succeeded.
One day, Narasimha, who worked in a security agency, came home with a four-month-old baby and told his wife that they could adopt the baby.
“We tracked him after we received a complaint from a homeless couple, who said their baby had been stolen while they were sleeping. We arrested two other people, who had helped him steal the baby,” said Dabeerpura inspector M. Mattaiah.
Cases of infants being stolen from hospitals and streets by childless couples and gangs have been increasing in the city.
Last month, four cases were reported and all the accused were childless, married men and woman, who could not adopt due to the complex procedure.
In earlier cases, which are yet to be detected, police suspects that inter-state gangs were involved. Even after two years of a CID probe, the Musheerabad infant abduction case is unsolved.
Last year, around 356 cases of abduction were registered by the city police wherein most of the victims were kids and infants. If not detected early, cases of infant abduction are the toughest for cops to crack.
“If few years pass by after an infant is stolen, it will be very difficult to identify the grown up kid. Even the parents will have difficulty in recognising the kid. This is one reason why several old cases remain undetected,” said a CID official.
Most cases of infant abduction take place in health centers and hospital, while many are stolen from the streets too.
“Two cases of infant abduction took place in Gandhi Hospital due to security lapses. Inadequate security helps the abductors get away,” said a senior official from North Zone.
In one case in the third week of July, B. Rajeswari, 26, from Ghatkesar, stole a 16-month-old infant from a woman at MGBS after diverting her attention. When she was arrested, she revealed that she was pregnant but had a spontaneous abortion. She had concealed it from her husband who was away. Since he was coming home, she wanted to show him a kid and decided to steal a baby.
