That’s my child: Swapped baby returned

Evidence suggests that Hamida and the hospital staff were involved in the kidnapping.

KARACHI: A baby was recovered on Monday, two days after it was allegedly kidnapped from the government-run Sobhraj Maternity Hospital.

The authorities claim that the boy was brought to the hospital in the morning by the chief suspect’s husband. They added that he seemed to be unaware of the exchange and only found out about it when he learnt about it on the news.

The boy’s parents registered a case with the Arambagh police station which was later transferred to SHO Ghazala Parveen at the women’s police station. She claimed that the hospital did not cooperate with the police in producing the suspects.

“The initial investigation suggests that the other mother, Hamida and her husband Zubair were responsible for the swap and were helped by the hospital staff,” she said. Ghazala added that the five staff members who were present at the delivery were taken into police custody. The accused couple had married last year and given the hospital incorrect residential information. The police discovered this when the SHO asked for their address. Ghazala claims that on the admissions form, they had written ‘ABC’ in the address section. “All circumstances suggest that it was a kidnapping, however after an investigation and arrests if the accused were not involved then they will be released,” she said.

Action replay

Two newborn babies were allegedly swapped shortly after they were born in the hospital on Saturday. Kulsoom and Hamida, separately gave birth to two babies in normal delivery cases. One woman gave birth to a baby boy and the other to a girl but the confrontation began when both women claimed the baby boy.

Kulsoom said that she was discharged on Saturday and went home with a baby. She returned to the hospital on Sunday claiming that she had given birth to a boy but the staff had given her a girl.

The hospital administration has suspended four staff members and formed an inquiry team to look into the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 9^th, 2011.