Post-partum plot: Fourth member of the infant-abducting quartet arrested

According to sub inspector Zahoor Bhatti, Gul Bibi, 42, assisted Saleem, in taking the infant from NICH.

KARACHI:

The investigators of the Jinnah hospital infant kidnapping case arrested the final suspect involved, from information provided by Sobia Saleem, the nursing student who was arrested on Sunday.

According to sub inspector Zahoor Bhatti, Gul Bibi, 42, assisted Saleem, in taking the infant from National Institute of Child Health (NICH) to a private hospital in Malir, for a commission of Rs10,000.

Gul Bibi also confessed, but like the woman who adopted the infant, she blamed Saleem for luring her into doing it.

Bibi is divorced and a mother of four children. According to her, she grew tired of constant taunts by her husband, and afterwards, her own family. “I decided to manage my expenses myself,” she said. “Then I met Sobia and she persuaded me to earn money this way.”

She said that Saleem made the whole plan and asked her to take the baby from NICH to Malir. “Sobia took me inside the nursery and gave me the baby and then asked me to take him to the other hospital where she worked,” Bibi said.

All four suspects, including Saleem, the couple who bought the infant and Bibi were presented to the district south judicial magistrate. All of them were remanded into police custody and the police will prepare a charge sheet against them within 14 days, said SHO Tasawwur Ameer.

Meanwhile, the real family of the stolen infant finally named him amidst the crowd of relatives gathered at their house. He was named Abdul Ghani, after his grandfather. “My mother named my son after my father,” said Rahib Ali, Abdul Ghani’s father. “It is a tradition in our family that children are named after elders.” It has been 21 years since Rahib Ali’s father died, he said, adding that this was the first instant in his family that a grandchild was named after his grandfather.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 15^th,  2011.