School teacher arrested for stealing newborn

Indore: A 40-year-old government school teacher was on Tuesday arrested for allegedly stealing a newborn from a hospital here, police said. Acting on a tip off, police recovered the baby boy from the clutches of the accused Shahina Shaikh, Crime Branch’s Additional Superintendent of Police Vinay Prakash Paul said.

“Shaikh stole the baby, just 20 minutes after he was born at the state government-run Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital on February 25”, he added. “In guise of a nurse, Shaikh took the baby away saying he needed an injection. However, the CCTV camera captured her with the baby. She then took the new born to her aunt’s place in Dhar district saying that it was her child and left her there.

Shaikh returned here and changed her house in fear of arrest given that police had announced a reward of Rs 10,000 on her head”, the ASP said. During interrogation, Shaikh confessed that she stole the baby as she couldn’t bear a child from her two marriages, Paul added.

The newborn is being treated in a hospital and further investigations are on, police said.

PTI