Stolen baby rescued
Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) yesterday recovered a newborn baby girl who they suspect was stolen from a hospital two weeks ago from a house in the capital's Lalbagh area.
They also detained four women from the place for their alleged involvement in stealing and selling the infant.
The detainees are members of a gang that steals babies from different hospitals and sells them from that house, said Rab, adding that the house belonged to Monowara, the ring leader of the gang.
One of the detainees, however, claimed that a woman gave birth to the baby at Monowara's house two weeks ago.
On information that a gang was attempting to sell a two-week-old baby, the elite force raided the house and found the baby, said Lt Col Khandaker Golam Sarwar, commanding officer of Rab-3.
The baby may have been stolen from a hospital soon after her birth. The identity of the baby was known after Monowara's arrest, said the CO at a press briefing at Dhaka the Medical College Hospital premises.
The detainees are Farida Khanam and Jahanara, special attendants (aya) at the DMCH, Ferdousi Begum, another wife of Monowara's husband, and Rozina alias Rozi.
Monowara had gone into hiding soon after the incident.
The gang was going to sell the baby in exchange of around Tk 70,000, said another Rab official, seeking anonymity.
Rab officials handed over the baby to the DMCH authorities for her treatment.
Ferdousi told The Daily Star after the briefing that Monowara had been involved in collecting and selling babies for a long time.
"There was a special room in Monowara's house where mothers interested to sell their babies used to give birth. Some special ayas at different city hospitals used to collect the babies," she said, adding that Rozina worked as a birth attendant there for Tk 4,000 per month.
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