A six-month-old girl was allegedly kidnapped from Hindu Rao Hospital in North Delhi on Saturday morning while her mother was caught up in the queue to give blood sample of her elder daughter. later in the day, the baby girl identified as Atifa, was found on an e-rickshaw in North Delhi’s Model Town by police officials.
Police said the CCTV cameras in the hospital were “not functioning” and they could not get any footage for clues to track Atifa, a charge denied by North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) which runs the hospital.
The infant went missing from the hospital around 8.15 am when her mother handed her to another lady. “Atifa’s mother had gone to the hospital for the blood test of her elder daughter. Since Atifa was crying, the lab assistant suggested her mother to hand over the kid to the lady who was in front of her. Within a few minutes of giving her child to the lady, she found that her daughter and the lady were missing,” Esha Pandey, additional DCP-I(North) said.
In her complaint, Atifa’s mother has said that the hospital didn’t take quick action when she raised a hue and cry about her missing daughter and only made a PCR call at 8.59 am, the officer said.
According to Atifa’s mother, the lady who kidnapped her daughter was wearing a red bindi and a huge nosepin.
Police is on the lookout for the woman who kidnapped the child. “We have flashed the information with the details of the lady and the kid at all Metro stations, railway stations, ISBT and all PCR vans across the city.
“We have informed the various motor and foot patrolling teams to look at all ladies of the same profile,” said the officer, adding that they are scanning the data of all the visitors to the hospital since morning.
North Delhi Mayor Sanjeev Nayyar confirmed the kidnapping of the infant from the hospital but claimed that the CCTV cameras there were functional.
“Our knowledge is that the CCTV cameras at the hospital are functional,” he said.