NEWS

Woman arrested in baby swapping case

By Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad
May 23, 2003 20:12 IST

The Hyderabad Police on Friday arrested the woman who had swapped her baby girl for a boy at the Government Maternity Hospital.

A city police spokesman told rediff.com that the police took Mehmoodabi into custody from her residence in Akbarbagh area in the city.

She has been arrested under sections 419 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code for impersonation and concealment of evidence, in connection with the recovery of male child from her possession.

Mehmoodabi will be produced before the second metropolitan magistrate for judicial remand.

Earlier, on May 13, the city police had arrested two nurses and a ward-boy of the hospital as well as the father of the girl, Shaik Nazeer Ahmed. The police had deferred the arrest of Mehmoodabi as her baby was unwell.

The four were charged under sections 167(framing an incorrect document with intent to cause injury), 201 and 419 read with section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) Indian Penal Code and remanded to judicial custody.

The police said the DNA tests conducted on the two babies and their mothers confirmed that the boy belonged to Latha while the girl belonged to Mehmoodabi.

Although both nurses and the wardboy have been dismissed from service, the government is yet to initiate action against the senior staff of the hospital, including Hospital Superintendent Dr M Umamaheshwar Rao, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Dr Pratibha, Professor of Paediatrics Dr Chandrakala, duty doctors and Assistant Professors of Paediatrics Dr Vanamala and Dr Lakshmi Nalini, who have been indicted by two-member committee that conducted a departmental inquiry into the incident.

Syed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad

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