GUWAHATI: A woman finally reunited with her son three years after a hospital allegedly switched her newborn son. The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Barpeta Court on Friday, June 10, finally gave the verdict that the child who had been switched by the hospital authority three years back, should be returned to his original mother. The judgement of the court has been given based on the DNA test report.
Nazma Khanam was deprived of her child for three years due to the negligence of the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital, Barpeta finally got back her child.
According to reports, the incident took place on May 3 in 2019, when two pregnant women with similar names were admitted at the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital, Barpeta. Among the two, Nazma Khanam was admitted in the ICU, after she gave birth to a child that day. The child was born healthy and was kept in the Pediatric ICU. A few hours later the hospital staff forcefully handed over a dead body of an infant to Nazma Khanam. The family refused to accept the child’s death, approached the police and lodged an FIR at the Barpeta Police Station and asked for an investigation.
According to reports, advocate Abdul Mannan said that the family members of Nazma Khanam claimed that she gave birth to a healthy baby and the baby couldn’t have died.
Reportedly, a case was registered at Barpeta Police Station under section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 363 (Punishment for kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code.
“After three days, the family members checked the list of pregnant women who gave birth to babies at the hospital and they found that two women with similar names – Nazma Khanam and Nazma Khatun – had given birth to two babies and one of the two babies had died,” Abdul Mannan said.
The investigation officer of the case had filed a petition before the court for a DNA test on October 8 in 2020. The test report came positive and the court finally directed to hand over the child to Nazma Khanam, the legitimate mother.
The advocate told the media that the other woman was Nazma Khatun, who had given birth to two babies and one among the two babies had died. During the police investigation, it was found that due to the similarity of their names, the living child was handed over to another woman named Nazma Khatun of Gossaigaon area instead of Nazma Khanam.