BENGALURU: Bengaluru police on Sunday arrested a 34-year-old psychiatrist on charges of stealing a newborn baby from a BBMP maternity home at Chamarajpet a year ago, and traced the child, which was allegedly sold to a woman.
The accused, Dr Rashmi Shashikumar, works at a private hospital on Bannerghatta Road. A police team, led by SI Srinivas KR, analysed over 30,000 calls from the nearest tower before zeroing in on the accused.
Dr Rashmi had allegedly taken Rs 15 lakh from Anupama, who was consulting her for over a year. Anupama and her husband already have a daughter, who is specially-challenged, and they wanted to have another child, the investigation officer said. But Anupama could not conceive again due to health issues. Dr Rashmi convinced her that she could get a baby through surrogacy. She could not arrange for a surrogate mother, but lied to Anupama saying the due date for the baby was May 28, 2020.
When the date approached, Dr Rashmi went to three prominent hospitals looking for a baby, before arriving at the BBMP facility in South Bengaluru. She walked in as a consulting doctor and met Husna Banu, who had delivered a baby boy. She managed to flee with the infant. She then called up Anupama, saying she is coming to hand over the baby, and claimed that its mother died due to some complications during delivery. The police and found her in Belagavi. Dr Rashmi confessed that she committed the crime to repay her loans.