Hyderabad: The seven-day-old baby which was kidnapped on Monday morning from Koti Maternity hospital was traced by the police less than 24 hours to Bidar government hospital in adjoining Karnataka state early on Tuesday.
Fear of getting caught by the police was suspected to have forced the woman to leave the baby at the hospital and flee.
The baby of Vijaya and Mari Sabawat, natives of Manchal, was kidnapped from the hospital on Monday when they came to get the infant vaccinated, but at 11:30 am a woman in purplish blue saree approached Vijaya and offered to take the baby for vaccination.
However, when the woman did not return for a long time, the couple started looking for their baby in the hospital and surrounding areas, but in vain.
The couple approached Sultan Bazaar police after two hours, and the cops started questioning the people at the hospital.
“We started checking CCTV footage and identified the woman as she was holding the baby. She was seen to be going to MGBS, where she stood on platform 50, waiting to take a bus to Bidar,” said Shiva Shankar Rao, the inspector of Sultan Bazaar police station.
The officer then checked the CCTV footage available with RTC bus authorities and called the driver to find out where the suspect got down.
“The driver told us that the woman got down at Nayakaman, a town in Bidar at 4.30 pm. We immediately sent police teams to Bidar and circulated the photographs of the woman and the baby,” the officer said.
Karnataka and Hyderabad police together carried out cordon and search operation in Mangar Wasti, hotels, lodges and bus stands from Monday night, to trace the suspect.
Mr Rao said, “At 4 am on Tuesday, we received a call from the Bidar government hospital informing us about the baby. The hospital staff identified the baby after they saw her viral pictures. We identified the baby and she is now with her parents,” the officer said.
Some of the police officers from Hyderabad are still camping in Bidar in their bid to trace the suspect.
