Police have arrested a young woman and her mother for stealing a 5-day-old baby at Chattogram Medical College Hospital.

Nasima Akhter, 23, and her mother, Kharu Akhter, 42, were held in Feni’s Parshuram on Wednesday after the child was kidnapped from the hospital.

Santosh Kumar Chakma, chief of Panchlaish Police Station in the port city, told reporters that the police went through the CCTV footage of the hospital after Mohammad Noman, the stolen baby’s father, filed a complaint on Tuesday.

The baby was found at a house in Parshuram. The police interrogated Nasima and her mother and received a confession and details of the incident.

According to Santosh, Nasima gave birth to twin babies, a boy and a girl, on Dec 6. The boy died soon after, and the girl was admitted to the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

“Nasima’s daughter was in critical condition. That is why Nasima and her mother executed an elaborate plan to steal another woman’s relatively healthy baby.”

Nasima’s daughter was admitted to bed 73 in the NICU ward. Noman’s child was in bed 31. On Tuesday morning, as the nurses were changing shifts, Nasima picked up the baby from bed 31 and left.

Police went to investigate the incident and noticed that the parents of all the children were still at the hospital except the one in bed 31.

They inquired about the child at the hospital and noticed that her files were missing. When they attempted to contact the parents via phone, they hung up.

“Two women were seen on the CCTV camera, but the kidnapping of the child was not clear. However, they took the files of the at-risk child as they left. We eventually tracked the phone number at the hospital to Feni and conducted an operation.”

The rescued baby is currently undergoing treatment at the NICU of Chattogram Medical College and Hospital.