Rajiv Kalkod / Feb 26, 2025, 23:26 IST
Bengaluru: A city court recently held a 36-year-old psychiatrist guilty of stealing a newborn boy and selling him for Rs 14.5 lakh in 2020 and sentenced her to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment.
Judge CB Santosh also fined convict Rashmi Shashikumar, a resident of Nagarbhavi, Rs 1 lakh.
Rashmi, who was out on bail and was present in the court when the orders were passed on Feb 19, was taken into custody and sent to Bengaluru Central prison.
The case dates back to May 2020 when a new mother realised that her newborn boy was stolen from BBMP Hospital in Chamarajpet. A complaint was lodged with Chamrajpet police. However, it took a full year for police to crack the case and arrest the accused, Rashmi.
The infant was stolen on May 29, 2020, the day he was born. Police recovered the child on May 29, 2021. The infant was sold to a north Karnataka couple, claiming it was a surrogacy baby. When police knocked on the couple's door, they were happily celebrating the infant's first birthday.
Police investigations revealed that the baby was born around 7.50am. Around 10am, his father went out to drop his sister-in-law home. A woman doctor spoke to the mother, and the attendant gave her pills on the doctor's advice. The mother fell asleep, and when she woke up 45 minutes later, the baby was missing. ..
As police launched an investigation, a portrait of the suspet was drawn with the help of CCTV footage. "We questioned more than 700 people, scanned over 300 CCTV footage, and studied over 5,000 phone call records before reaching the north Karnataka couple, who had taken the infant under the impression it was their child born out of surrogacy.. They were shoced to learn the real story," a senior police officer said.
According to the chargesheet filed by Chamarajpet police, Rashmi met the couple while working with a private hospital in Hubballi in 2015. "The couple had a special child, and Rashmi assured them that they could have a healthy child through surrogacy. In 2019, she met the couple and collected materials and samples for surrogacy from the father. Then, she told the couple that she had found a woman in Bengaluru who agreed to be the surrogate mother. By then, Rashmi had taken Rs 14.5 lakh from the couple. She told the couple that the delivery would happen in May 2020," the chargesheet stated.
As May approached, Rashmi scouted several govt hospitals. She zeroed in on the Chamrajpet hospital due to lack of security at the place. She visited the ward of the woman 3-4 times on May 27 and 28 and made a mental note of her bed as it was close to the main door.
According to the chargesheet, on May 29, she entered the ward, gave the attendant sleeping pills, asking her to feed them to the mother. As the mother was asleep, Rashmi picked up the baby and left the hospital. First, she went to a friend's place in Vijayanagar, where the couple collected the baby.
Joy for one, grief for another
Public prosecutor BH Bhaskar stated that the trial witnessed several emotionally charged moments.
"The child's biological parents had lost hope of getting back their son. Their statements in recalling the lost child and recovering him after one year were laced with emotion. Similarly the north Karnataka couple, cheated by Rashmi, too was emotional in their deposition. The woman had developed special affection towards the child. She was deeply hurt on learning the truth. Emotions ran high when she was deposing before the court. The pain of being cheated of money and, more than that, losing the child to whom she was attached had deeply hurt her," Bhaskar said.
"DNA tests proved the biological parents of the child. Bank transactions showed that Rashmi had taken Rs 14.5 lakh from the couple. Mobile call records showed a long relationship between Rashmi and the couple. Mobile tower locations proved that Rashmi was present in the hospital when the boy was stolen. These factors helped in getting the conviction," he said.
Then DCP Harish Pandey led the investigation.
Comments