Police stand guard near Motihari sadar hospital after a mob went on the rampage in protest against the theft of a newborn on Tuesday. Picture by Ajit Kumar Verma

A mob of about one hundred people ransacked the Motihari sadar hospital on Tuesday to protest the theft of a newborn on Monday morning.

The mob swooped down on the hospital around 9.30am, damaged furniture and doors and allegedly assaulted nurses and health officials during the hour-long rampage.

A baby boy born to Sunita Devi and her husband Heera Sah was stolen on Monday morning, the second time in two years that a male child has gone missing from the hospital.

The family hails from Nimuiya village in Bankat block of East Champaran district. The baby is Sunita Devi’s first-born.

According to her family members as well as the hospital’s deputy superintendent, S.N. Singh, the baby went missing when one Gahaniya Devi, a relative of Sunita Devi, handed over the infant to a lady dressed in the attire of a nurse when she went to the bathroom.

Family members said the woman dressed as a nurse had been standing near the door leading to the ward for quite some time.

“What kind of security does the hospital provide those who are admitted here? Child-lifters posing as nurses are freely and fearlessly moving around,” said Sunita’s father-in-law Jai Mangal Sah, who was present inside the ward when the baby went missing.

Heera, the infant’s father, blamed the theft on the poor security arrangements on the hospital premises. “We are worried about the health of my wife who lost consciousness on hearing the news. Whenever she is coming around, she is becoming hysterical,” he said.

Nurses and other officials of the hospital have gone on strike against the mob attack on Tuesday, said deputy superintendent Singh. He, however, admitted that security was lax inside the hospital. “There is a sense of insecurity here owing to poor law and order,” Singh said.

East Champaran district magistrate Abhijit Sinha held a review meeting on Tuesday with Singh in the absence of the civil surgeon and took stock of the situation on the hospital campus.