Mother who claimed baby was snatched arrested

Mother who claimed baby was snatched arrested
Express news service
Posted: Aug 07, 2012 at 0613 hrs IST
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Two days after a 32-year-old woman claimed that her baby girl was snatched in front of a hospital, Samarth police on Monday arrested her for abandoning the baby near a nullah in Kothrud. Despite rigorous search operation, the police have not been able to trace the baby yet.
Police said Muskan Sameer Shaikh, a resident of Mominpura, abandoned her 24-day-old Sadira after she got fed up with the high costs incurred in her treatment.
Senior inspector of Samarth police station Ganpat Nikam said Shaikh had claimed that she was called to the KEM Hospital by doctors for her baby’s treatment and while returning unidentified persons snatched her baby.
A week ago, Muskan and her family had shifted the baby out of KEM Hospital where she was being treated for septicemia. The doctors at the hospital said the parents wanted to discontinue treatment, saying they wanted to shift the baby to a hospital near their house.
According to Muskan’s complaint, on reaching the hospital around 12.30 pm on Saturday, medical staff denied having called her up. Subsequently, she left the hospital and was waiting for an autorickshaw outside the rear gate when two men on a motorcycle, with their faces covered, approached her. They snatched her baby and cell phone and told her to advise her husband Sameer to ‘behave’ else they would kill their daughter.
“We found that her cell phone was at her home. During the interrogation, Muskan told us that she abandoned the baby near a nullah in Kothrud. She told us that she was fed up with the baby’s treatment as there was little possibility of her recovering completely. She told us she left the baby near Ambil Odha. In spite of continuous search operation, we have not been able to trace the baby,” said Nikam.
Police have only arrested the mother in the case.
“We are yet to verify the role of other family members in the crime. She has been booked under Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code for abandoning the newborn. We have made various teams to search the baby. The inquiry with the local residents is also on. Rising waters in the nullah are making the search difficult,” added Nikam.