Kalawati Devi at Patna Medical College and Hospital on Sunday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Twenty-year-old Kalawati Devi, admitted to Patna Medical College and Hospital for delivery on May 16, did not have the faintest clue that her newborn would be stolen from the state’s premier health hub.

The same night, Kalawati was operated upon at 10.30 and a baby boy, her first child, was born. On May 17, both the mother and child were shifted from the gynaecology department’s admission ward to the ICU after Kalawati’s condition deteriorated.

On Saturday morning, a young woman, suspected to be an attendant of another woman admitted in the admission ward where Kalawati was initially, allegedly walked away with the child.

On Sunday, a sobbing Kalawati, who had married Vidyasagar, a farmer from Arwal district, two years ago, blamed the hospital administration for the incident.

Vidyasagar said: “How was a newborn stolen when the hospital was teeming with patients and doctors? Government hospital is the only option for people like us with limited source of income.”

A nurse working in the admission ward, on condition of anonymity, said: “Based on the CCTV footage, we have come to know that a young woman accompanying an elderly attendant of a patient, Shazia (name changed), in the admission ward for delivery, is behind the incident.”

She further said: “The CCTV footage clearly shows a woman in a red sari coming out of the ICU carrying the baby. The woman is the same one who used to accompany Shazia’s elderly attendant.”

Pirbahore police detained the elderly attendant but she denied even knowing the accused, let alone conniving with her in the crime.

An FIR has been lodged in the matter.

According to Kalawati’s family members, the incident occurred around 10am on Saturday when Panpati Devi, who was attending to daughter Kalawati and the baby, stepped out to go to the pharmacy. Kalawati’s brother Upendra and father Rajdeo were preparing food outside. A young woman came into the ICU and took away the baby while Kalawati was asleep. The CCTV outside the ICU captured her movements.