SHAMSUDDIN ILLIUS, Ctg
Media: The Independent
Law enforcement officials are yet to make any headway in finding the newborn who went missing from ward no-34 of the Chittagong Medical College Hospital (CMCH) eight days ago.
The 14-day old infant, who was under treatment in the ward and occupied bed no-35, went missing at 3pm on July 14. The infant’s mother is still passing her days at CMCH, hoping that her child will be returned soon.
After analysing the video footage from the ward’s surveillance cameras, the Rapid Action Battalion-7 (RAB) has arrested two persons—ward boy Sujan Dutta (32) and Rina Dey (30)—in connection with the newborn’s disappearance. However, they did not give any information to the law enforcers during primary interrogation.
Jesmin Akhter, mother of the baby, lamented that the CMCH authorities and law enforcers are yet to find her baby even though eight days have passed since the infant went missing from the hospital.
When asked, Jesmin said that her husband Shafiul Alam, her mother-in-law and her elder son were also in the hospital ward on the day her baby went missing. Her mother-in-law went to the restroom for a few minutes and at the same time her husband went outside to get medicines. Jesmin herself went to look for her elder son. When they came back to the ward within five minutes, the baby was missing from the bed. When the incident came to light, the RAB, the Detective Branch (DB) of police and Panchlish police started investigating the matter.
The CMCH authorities also formed a four-member probe committee, headed by Prof. Rokayea Begum, head of the gynaecology department. Dr Sharmila Barua, Dr Badrunnessa, and Pranab Kumar Hawlader are other members of the committee.
However, the hospital authorities and law enforcers are yet to get any leads to trace the whereabouts of the missing baby.
When contacted, CMCH director Brig. Gen. Khandaker Shahidul Gani told The Independent, “Law enforcers are trying to find the baby. They have already arrested two people on the charge of kidnapping the baby.”
“We’re trying to find the missing infant. We’ve already formed a probe committee to identify those responsible for the kidnapping,” he said.
On July 16, Panchlaish police submitted an application to the court, seeking the arrestees’ custody for a five-day remand.
When contacted, Mohiuddin Mahmud, officer-in-charge (OC) of Panchlaish Police Station, said, “We’re doing our best to trace the baby. We’ve sought five days’ police remand for the two arrestees. The court kept the application for hearing on Wednesday.”
“If we get a chance to interrogate the duo, we hope to find the child soon. We’ll continue our search for the child,” he added.
A team of RAB-7 started searching for the missing baby on July 15 in the hospital. They interrogated the nurses of the ward and also examined the video footage from the surveillance cameras in the hospital.
When contacted, Shaheda Sultana, assistant director of RAB-7, told The Independent, “After analysing the video footage, it has been confirmed that the arrested duo had stolen the baby. They might have sold the baby. However, we’ll continue to search for the baby,” added Sultana.