2 women held for kidnapping infant

Two women have been arrested from adjoining Ghaziabad for kidnapping a one-month-old baby girl from a hospital here, police said on Wednesday.

Police said the accused Poonam, 22 and her sister, Ruchi, 19, residents of Khoda colony in Ghaziabad, were arrested on Tuesday. The baby was reunited with the mother on Wednesday.

"The infant was kidnapped by Poonam and Ruchi on Tuesday from Lal Bahadur Shastri (LBS) Hospital (in east Delhi)," Deputy Commissioner of Police Pankaj Kumar Singh said.

"Poonam and Ruchi befriended the infant's mother and started playing with the baby. When her mother went to get water, they kidnapped the minor. In a CCTV footage, they were seen hiring an auto outside the hospital," Singh added.

"Azad, the auto driver who dropped the accused to Khoda Colony, helped the police and took policemen to the spot where the women alighted," the officer added.

The police officers went door-to-door in search of the women and caught them late on Tuesday.

During questioning, Poonam told police she could not give birth to a child even after four years of marriage.

They planned to kidnap the baby after noticing her mother was tired as she was waiting at the hospital since morning for the baby's check-up, the police officer said.

--IANS

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