LARKANA, July 24: Police on Wednesday claimed that the baby recovered in a raid on a house in the Garib Muqam locality on Tuesday evening was the same one kidnapped during a power loadshedding spell on July 18 at the neonatology unit of the Chandka Medical College Children Hospital.

The police took the baby into custody along with a woman who claimed that she had ‘purchased’ the male baby for Rs10,000 from a stranger woman.

ASP Tauqeer told the media that a thorough probe into the matter was still under way to reach a conclusion and a DNA test of the baby and his putative parents would have to be conducted.

He said that acting upon a tip-off a police team raided the house of a labourer, Mohammed Rafique Pathan, in Garib Muqam and took a woman, Mumtaz Khatoon, and the baby into custody.

They were brought to the women police station, where the kidnapped baby’s mother and grandmother were shown the recovered baby. Both the women recognised the baby, the ASP said, adding that still the police would continue their investigation on different lines to make things absolutely clear.

The women police station SHO Zarina Chandio said the age of the recovered boy seemed to be some 12 days.

The kidnapped baby, one-day-old when it was taken away, was born at the house of his father, Hussain Bakhsh Solangi, in Nazar Mohalla on July 17. Due to his feeble health, the baby was taken to the ICU of the neonatology unit of the CMC Children Hospital the following day.

The infant’s grandmother, Mukhtiar Khatoon, accompanied the newborn in the ward when he went missing during a loadshedding spell at about 10pm.

Mumtaz Khatoon told the media that she had apprised a woman doctor, Dr F. Shaikh, a private practitioner, of her wish to adopt a male child.

“A few days back, the doctor called me introduced a woman who claimed to have just given birth to a male baby. I was told that the woman being poor could not afford bringing up her child and is ready to give the newborn away for Rs10,000,” she said, adding that she paid the money and obtained the baby.

However, the ASP said that Mumtaz Khatoon had been making contradictory statements since the recovery of the baby from her possession.

He said that four persons were rounded up in the case. Mumtaz Khatoon and the recovered baby were lodged at the women police station, he added.

Meanwhile, the committee constituted by the CMCH Medical Superintendent Dr Safiullah Abbasi to investigate the alleged kidnapping did not fix responsibility on anyone. It, however, proposed installation of closed-circuit cameras, posting of more paramedics and entry of any person to the neonatology ICU strictly by identity card.