Couple steals newborn from ICU, tries to give it a 'baby swapping' twist

Cuttack, Sept 28: A newborn was stolen from the ICU of state-run SCB Medical College and Hospital here and the police has arrested a couple for trying to paint the theft as a baby swapping case, officials said on Wednesday.

The theft took place on Monday evening and the couple was arrested on Tuesday, Cuttack deputy commissioner of police Pinak Misra said. The woman was arrested after she went to the hospital on Tuesday and claimed that she had given birth to a baby boy but on reaching home after her discharge on Monday found that she had taken with her an infant girl.

She also produced a discharge certificate of the hospital to prove her point. Misra and the hospital official said that the discharge certificate was found to be a fake and the woman was seen in the hospital CCTV footage as coming out of the ICU carrying the infant and walking down the corridor.

He said that the woman had entered the ICU by claiming that her newborn was undergoing treatment there and left it with the stolen infant when the guard was not present at the exit.

The hospital administrative officer Abinash Rout said that a woman from Puri district was admitted to the hospital on Thursday and had given birth to twin daughters on Sunday.

As one of the two newborns was found to be suffering from infant jaundice, she was shifted to the ICU for treatment on Monday evening. However, within ten minutes hospital nurses had raised an alarm that the newborn was missing from the ICU.

He said that on checking details in the purported discharge certificate it was found to be a fake and that the woman who had produced it was not admitted to the hospital at all for delivery. The hospital had lodged a written complaint with the Mangalabag police station and the couple was arrested, the police said.