KARACHI, May 28: The mystery of the disappearance of a newly born boy from the National Institute of Child Health further deepened on Sunday after police investigators failed to find any entry of the mother in the record of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre’s gynaecology ward where, according to the parents, their child was born.
An FIR pertaining to the kidnapping of the newly born was lodged at the Saddar police station on intervention of a councillor on behalf of the parents, Arshad Ali, 16 and Shazia, 25.
According to the FIR registered on May 25, the couple stated that they were deprived of their baby by the staff of the NICH.
The issue became further controversial when the Secretary Health, Dr Noshad Shaikh, quoting the findings of a professor of the JPMC’s gynaecology ward, said the woman claming her newly born baby to have been kidnapped from the hospital had not gone through the delivery during the past one month when she was examined by the professor.
However, he called for a high-level inquiry into the matter, saying the JPMC did not fall within his purview.
DSP Gul Hameed Samoo, investigating the case, told Dawn that they were in the process of checking the record of the JPMC’s gynaecology ward.
“So far, we have not found any entry in the ward’s record verifying that Shazia was admitted to the ward or a baby was born to her,” the DSP said.
He said that staff of the ward and the NICH would also be questioned by the police in the case and there was a likely hood that Shazia’s medical examination would be carried out at another hospital by the police to obtain an unbiased medical opinion.
When the baby’s teenager father was contacted by Dawn, he narrated their ordeal, saying that on May 23, a baby boy was born to them in the JPMC.
Soon after the delivery, a nurse came up saying that the baby was premature and he would be kept in an incubator.
Subsequently, the baby was sent to the NICH while he was stopped at the gate of the hospital by the security guard.
“My wife and nurse went to the sixth floor where the baby was kept in a glass box,” Arshad said.
According to Arshad, when his wife Shazia tried to stay with the baby, she was not allowed. She was not allowed to stay in the hospital either so the couple returned home.
The next morning when Shazia went to the NICH’s sixth floor, another woman was standing along the baby claming it to be her child, Arshad said.
A scene was created in the hospital. The staff intervened in the matter and Shaiza was taken to some senior official of the hospital.
There she was told that the hospital did not have her baby and that she should leave the hospital premises immediately, Arshad claimed.
Subsequently, when the couple protested, they were thrown out of the hospital by the security guards, Arshad added.
The Sindh Home Minister, Rauf Siddiqi, has taken a serious notice of a newborn baby that went missing from the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, adds APP.
He has directed the concerned police officials to launch a search operation for recovery of the missing infant, said a statement on Sunday.
Mr Siddiqi said appropriate action would be taken against police officials showing any apathy.
