HYDERABAD, Sept 6: Two sisters were remanded in judicial custody in women’s prison by Judicial Magistrate Asif Soomro here on Thursday after they failed to submit sureties of Rs50,000 each in the case of kidnapping of an infant girl.

Hussainabad investigation wing police took Safia and Kausar to the court with their faces covered. They were arrested in New Karachi last night and brought to the women’s police station. Safia was identified by the baby’s mother Feroza and her mother-in-law Khursheed Begum at the women’s police station as the woman who had kidnapped three-day-old Dua.

The judge remanded Nasir Abbas and Javed Iqbal, husbands of Kausar and Safia, respectively, in police custody for three days.

The court first approved bail of the women for Rs50,000 under a recent amendment to Section 167 of the Criminal Procedure Code, according to which women cannot not be remanded in police custody. However, when they failed to submit the surety they were sent to women’s prison.

“I had given my baby in her lap as I was going to lavatory and this is the woman who took her away,” Feroza told Dawn in the court.

Her mother-in-law Khursheed Begum also identified the suspect who had stayed in the hospital’s ward. “We can say that her sister is also involved in the case but we are only identifying the woman who is responsible for the kidnapping,” she said. She said she knew Safia well because she had stayed there for the whole day. “Dua was born on Thursday, Aug 16, while Safia arrived there on Saturday and left the hospital on Aug 19 with the baby,” she alleged.

“First she told me that she had taken away the child but then she retracted the statement,” Feroza said. When Feroza informed the magistrate that that Safia had kidnapped her baby, the two sisters refuted the claim.

Investigation Officer Sobdar Leghari filed an application before the sessions judge for cancellation of the suspects’ bail and it was fixed for hearing on Friday.

The Supreme Court has also taken suo motu notice of the case and the chief justice has expressed dissatisfaction over the progress report submitted by Hussainabad police.

He has directed the Sindh police chief to supervise the investigation on a daily basis and submit report to the SC registrar.