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Stealing of a Twin Baby

Sorry state of DMCH security exposed

Shaheen Mollah
Investigators have yet to obtain any clue as to the identity of the woman who stole a one-day-old identical twin on Thursday morning from Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH).
The incident exposes serious security flaws at the country's premier public hospital that has as many as 53 CCTV cameras installed and an adequate number of guards watching over its precincts.
DMCH's Deputy Director Dr Mashiur Rahman said the thief eluded the surveillance cameras and security personnel and this unchallenged escape with a 26-hour-old baby raises questions whether some hospital staffs are in collusion with any
child theft racket.
The CCTVs were installed following reports on the theft of newborns from the DMCH.
The woman, around 45, had appeared a little after the birth of the twins and gained the mother's trust by instructing the latter on childcare, said Gulenur Begum, the twins' grandmother.
On Wednesday, the imposter woman, accompanied by the baby's grandmother, carried the baby towards a doctor's chamber at 10:50am. The CCTV video footage also shows this.
The baby she stole the next day turned out to be the healthy one instead of the comparably underweight one she was carrying in the footage.
The deputy director also revealed that a number of cameras offered no vision as the bulbs lighting some corridors were turned off.
"It is only logical to assume there were people posted at different points to turn off the bulbs throughout the escape route, ” he said.
His comments also bring to light the abysmal security system with no one employed to keep an eye on the monitor to observe what was happening around the hospital.
The monitor is set up inside the room of Brig Gen Mustafizur Rahman, the hospital's director. No alarm, however, went off even after views from some cameras were missing during the incident.
The incident also coincided with the time when there was no guard at the exit of the neonatal ward for about 15 minutes. The guard had to go to the next ward to pacify some patients' attendants brawling there, sources at the hospital said.
The guard, Nazimuddin, has been
closed to the headquarters, said Ansar Commander of DMCH Abdul Khaleque.
The twin boys were born on Wednesday morning to Runa Begum, a housewife, and Kawsar Hossain, a security guard of an apartment building residing at Mohammadpur in the capital.
Shahbagh Police Station's Sub Inspector Ferdous Alam Sarker, the investigating officer (IO) of the case, said a team of police are working to track the thief down.
"We have been provided photographs of the thief and law enforcers are working to find out her whereabouts," said Ferdous.
However, Kawsar Hossain, the baby's father, said the hospital authority deferred to come up with adequate help to recover the stolen baby.
"Nobody appeared until late Friday afternoon to explain to us what exactly happened to my missing boy," he said.
Kawsar, a resident of Mohammadpur, is a security guard at an apartment building and his wife
Runa Begum is a housewife.
Kawsar firmly believes hospital staffs are involved in the crime.
"I cannot believe how all security measures failed right at the moment when my baby was being taken away from the hospital, “ he added.
Baby trade at city hospitals
Trading of newborns is not uncommon at different city hospitals, including the DMCH. While incidents of theft are few and far between, selling newborns to childless couples happens almost regularly.
In Bangladesh about 10-15% couples are childless who crave for adopting a child, said Dr Sayeba Akhter, former head of Gynecology and Obstetrics at DMCH.
This percentage rate of childless couples creates the demand for newborns. In most cases, birth attendants and other employees at hospitals collude with racketeers who then dissuade pregnant women seeking abortion from killing the foetus.
The police apparently are clueless about the fate of the traded babies.