‘My child may be alive but hungry’

Clad in a burqa, a 27-year-old unidentified woman approached Uppu Chinnu two days back claiming her baby was also admitted in the Niloufer Hospitalnd befriended her. She convinced Chinnu she was an attendant for a baby and even took care of the latter’s 11-month grandson, Bandaru Ajay by singing a lullaby. However, Chinnu was in for a shock as the woman turned out be an abductor in disguise who vanished with Ajay in the wee hours of Tuesday.In yet another case of abduction of an infant from the hospital, the burqa-clad woman fled with Ajay, hoodwinking the boy’s parents and the security staff. She made a safe exit as the boy’s grandmother was fast asleep around 2 a.m. To ensure the security did not get wind of her plans, she also strolled in the premises with the boy, pretending to be a close relative. On bed number 111 of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Ajay’s mother, Sunita was inconsolable. As Expresso approached her and the boy’s grandmother, they asked, “Saaru, can my son be traced? Did you get any information about my missing boy? He is habitated to bottled milk. He might not have got anything to eat till now. Please help us in tracing my boy.” Ajay is the son of Bandaru Venkat and Sunita who hail from Armoor in Nizamabad district.They were at the Niloufer hospital as their elder son, Rakesh (2) was admitted in the ESR ward on Sunday for his kidney related ailment. “She could not speak Telugu and spoke in Urdu. She came and said she also had got her son admitted in the second floor. She convinced us by her sweet talk and even sang a lullaby to make Ajay sleep. We all believed her and had gone to sleep at the waiting room attached to the ward. Around 2 a.m, she escaped along with the boy,’’ 65-year-old Uppu Chinnu said with tearful eyes. Sunita, the boy’s mother said the woman gave an impression to security guards that she was a relative of the boy. “I left my son with my mother after feeding him around 11 p.m on Monday and went to the PICU, where my elder son was undergoing treatment. Suddenly, my mother started screaming when she found the child missing,’’ she added. An attendant of a patient at PICU said she saw the burqa-clad lady actively involved in talking with the old woman and her daughter Sunita. She also strolled around holding the baby. “I thought she was a close relative of the family. I came to know this morning that she has kidnapped the boy,’’ she said. This was the third incident of a baby going missing from the Niloufer Hospital. One baby girl and two baby boys had gone missing till date this year. Of them, one boy was traced by the Nampally police. Meanwhile, Nampally police registered a kidnap case based on a complaint lodged by Venkat. Police inspector Ch Sridhar told Expresso they were examining the CCTV footage in which the abductor was captured. But it may not be of much help as she was burqa-clad, sources said. Police are preparing a sketch of the woman based on the descriptions given by those who had seen her.

By Mouli Mareedu

moulimareedu@gmail.com