India: Woman reunited with son 3 years after hospital switched babies

In a bizarre incident in Assam's Barpeta district, three years after a hospital switched her newborn, a woman was finally able to unite with her son following a court directive after a DNA report.

According to reports, on May 3, 2019, Nazma Khanam, a pregnant woman from Barpeta, gave birth to a son at the government-run hospital. The woman was admitted to the ICU after the baby's birth, and the infant was admitted to the childcare room. A few hours later, hospital staff handed over a stillborn's body to Khanam's family members.

Advocate Abdul Mannan said that the family members of Nazma Khanam's claimed that she gave birth to a healthy baby and the baby couldn't die.

"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 to the similarity of their names - Nazma Khanam and Nazma Khatun had given birth to two babies and one among the two babies had died," Abdul Mannan said.

The advocate further said that the family members of Nazma Khanam had lodged a complaint at Barpeta police station and urged police to investigate the matter.

"A case was registered at Barpeta police station under section 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 363 (Punishment for kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code. The investigating officer of the case had filed a prayer petition before the court, Barpeta for a DNA test on October 8, 2020, and the court granted the prayer. The DNA test report was come positive. Following the directive of the court, the baby was handed over to the original mother," Abdul Mannan said.

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During a 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 the Gossaigaon area instead of Nazma Khanam.

• India