<i>Newborn stolen from DMCH </i>
A newborn baby was stolen as his mother slept beside him in a labour ward at Dhaka Medical College Hospital yesterday morning.
Mother-of-four Salma Begum, 35, wife of Md Roman, a motor mechanic assistant of Kajla in Jatrabari, was admitted to ward 17 at DMCH on Sunday afternoon and gave birth to her son that evening.
Salma's mother Banu Begum visited her daughter and grandson in hospital and returned to her house at around 10:00pm Sunday night.
A crying Salma told The Daily Star that a tall and healthy woman aged around 35-years-old came to her ward and told her that she could not locate the patient she had come to visit.
The woman then told Salma that she had travelled from a distant part of the country and had nowhere to stay that evening.
Salma, who had been admitted to DMCH with financial assistance from Brac, said, "I gave her a place to stay beside me but I could not sleep that night.
"Eventually I fell asleep around 8:00am and when I woke up I could not find my baby.
"The woman and her bag had disappeared too."
"When I asked the patient beside me what happened, she said that the woman told her she was my sister-in-law and that she was taking the baby."
Salma lodged a complaint with the DMCH authorities and DMCH police camp, who informed Shahbagh police station yesterday evening.
The woman and baby not been found by the time this report was filed at 7:30pm yesterday.
DMCH sources said that the last time a baby was stolen from the hospital was seven years ago and that security had been tightened after a past string of kidnappings.
Four female security guards were on duty in the ward when this incident took place.
Officer-in-Charge of Shahbagh Police Station Rezaul Karim told The Daily Star that a ward master of the DMCH informed the police verbally and would lodge a case at night.
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