KARACHI: A newborn baby, who had been kidnapped from a government hospital earlier this week, was recovered and the suspected kidnapper, along with her accomplices, was arrested in a raid in Afghan Basti near Sohrab Goth on Friday, police said.

The baby boy had been sold twice since Wednesday when he was taken away from Sindh government’s Qatar Hospital by the woman, who was later identified as Mrs Musarrat Anwar Khan, said a senior police officer.

With the help of CCTV camera footage obtained from the hospital, the woman, who had posed as a nurse to kidnap the baby, was identified, traced and arrested, said Karachi West SSP Nasir Aftab.

He said she told the Orangi police during interrogation that she had sold the baby to another woman, Mrs Nadia, for Rs15,000. The baby was then sold again to yet another woman, Mrs Mehmooda Shah, for Rs135,000, she added.

Officials said it was on March 22 when the wife of Pervez, a resident of Baldia Town, gave birth to the baby.

An official of Orangi Town police station Kamal said that the arrested woman was a resident of Ghazi Goth, Manghopir, and originally hailed from the Swat area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The police officer said that posing as a nurse, she administered some tranquilliser to the grandmother of the baby telling her that she was looking unwell and needed treatment. Once she fell unconscious, the woman took the baby, who had been in her care, and walked away.

An FIR (7/2017) was later registered at the Orangi Town police station and the police obtained the footage of CCTV cameras from the hospital to identify the woman.

After two days of investigation, the woman was finally identified and arrested. On information that she provided to the investigators, the police also raided a hideout in Afghan Basti near Sohrab Goth and arrested 10 other suspects, including three women, on a kidnapping charge, according to SSP Aftab.

In all, 11 suspects were arrested in the case, he said. Apart from the three women, other suspects were identified as three brothers namely Mohammed Anwar, Sarwar and Mohammed Umer, Mrs Bipu Mashkwat, Khan Mohammed, Juma Khan, Rozi Khan and Samiullah. All the suspects were being interrogated to ascertain their role in the kidnapping and their possible involvement in past incidents, the officer said.

SSP Aftab told Dawn that initial investigation indicated that the child was sold to an issueless couple for monetary gain.

Meanwhile, a man was arrested for allegedly killing his wife in North Karachi on Friday, police said.

Officials at the Khwaja Ajmer Nagri police station said that Mrs Sajjan aka Hira had been found dead at her home. Her husband, Manzoor, initially told the police investigators that she had committed suicide. But there were torture marks on her body.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2017