KARACHI, Nov 29: At the time of admitting his pregnant wife to a private hospital, Mohammad Iqbal didn’t have the slightest of the idea that his to-be-born baby would be kidnapped by one of the hospital’s staff; and as a consequence, he would lose his wife also.

At the time of kidnapping on October 6, 2006, the baby boy, not yet named, was only five-day old.

Salma, who could have identified her baby, died and Iqbal lost both his child and wife.

Unable to clear the hospital bills of around Rs20,000, Iqbal was detained by the administration of Darul Sehat Hospital in Gulistan-i-Jauhar on October 6, Sub-Inspector Adnan, the inquiry officer of the case, told Dawn.

Around 3pm the same day, the hospital staff found that the baby was missing from the incubator.

The hospital administration reported the matter to Sharea Faisal police, saying that the parents had taken away the baby without clearing the dues.

When Iqbal refuted the hospital’s claim, police examined the CCTV recording of the hospital’s main lounge. The recording showed that the baby was taken away by hospital’s receptionist Asif and a woman.

Police investigations revealed that a nurse, Nayla, handed over the baby to Asif after taking him out of the incubator.

It was later found out that the woman accompanying Asif was his wife, Shazia, who carried the baby, the inquiry officer said.

Police failed to raid Asif’s house on October 6. They went to his house the next day and found nobody. However, they arrested the nurse, Nayla, and Asif’s brother, Abid, who is still under police remand.

Abid told police that before coming to Karachi, Asif used to work at Al Shifa hospital in Rawalpindi. There, he fell in love with a Hepatitis-C patient Shazia. After Shazia was discharged from the hospital, the two got married.

Later, they came to Karachi, said the inquiry officer.