Police have rescued a 15-month-old child abducted from Chattogram Medical College Hospital (CMCH) and arrested a couple after an overnight drive.
The child, only known as Najehad, was recovered from the Chandgaon on Saturday morning. Police arrested Nasima Begum, 25, and Borhan Uddin, 30.
According to police, Najehad's mother and grandmother brought him to CMCH on Thursday night after his three-day-old cousin was admitted to the hospital's neonatal ward on the fifth floor.
Najehad's aunt, the newborn's mother, was admitted to another hospital in Cox's Bazar.
While Najehad's mother stayed in the neonatal ward, the toddler remained with his grandmother.
Investigating officer Sub-Inspector (SI) Nure Alam said the grandmother and the child were resting on the fourth-floor corridor on Friday when Nasima approached them, introducing herself as a friend of Najehad's mother and claiming to be from the same locality.
She spent three to four hours with the grandmother before offering to take the crying child for a walk. She then disappeared with the toddler.
After failing to locate the child, the family filed a case at Panchlaish Police Station on Friday night.
Police described the case as "clueless" because neither the family nor hospital staff had any information about the woman.
Investigators reviewed footage from around 70 CCTV cameras at different hospital gates.
One camera showed a woman wearing a burqa and face veil leaving the hospital carrying a child.
Police then collected the registration numbers of seven to eight autorickshaws waiting outside the hospital and began tracing their movements.
One driver recalled taking a veiled woman carrying a child to Chandgaon.
Despite searching throughout the night in heavy rain, police initially found no leads.
Before leaving the area, officers reviewed footage from a CCTV camera outside a poultry shop, where they spotted a young man carrying the child.
After circulating the man's image locally, police identified him and traced the suspects to a house in Jame Mosque Colony, where Najehad was safely recovered.
Police said they would seek remand for the arrested couple to determine whether they were involved in organised child abduction or had another motive.
