A newborn who was kidnapped from a health centre in Medchal district in Hyderabad on Wednesday morning was rescued the same day by the Rachakonda police. The kidnapper – a neighbour of the parents – was allegedly planning to sell the child.
Around 4 am on Wednesday, 28-year-old Aruna noticed that her son was missing. She had just given birth to the child at 12.20 am that very morning at the Narapally Primary Health Centre. The family at first searched for the baby within the hospital premises and at 6 am informed the police.
Soon after receiving the complaint, the police started their investigation and started reviewing CCTV footages of the hospital. Police found the culprit who kidnapped the baby to be one Renuka, a neighbour of Aruna.
“We used CCTV footage of the hospital to nab Renuka. We have taken her into custody and upon questioning came to know that she wanted to sell the child,” said B Anji Reddy, inspector, Medipally police station.
The police found the baby unharmed and returned him to his mother. They have also registered a case against Renuka under section 368 IPC for kidnapping and sent her to judicial remand.
This is not the first time the police in Telangana are relying on CCTV footage to solve crime in the state. The Telangana police plan on installing 15 lakh CCTV cameras across the state during the next three years. The Greater Hyderabad region alone presently has over 5 lakh CCTV cameras, the police intend to double this number in the next two years in the city.
Hyderabad Police Commissioner Anjani Kumar at the annual press meet in December 2018 stated that the use of technology in policing has helped them detect over 80% of criminal cases in the city. The police annual report also shows that since 2014 in Hyderabad, the number of cases that have been detected due to CCTV cameras and forensics technical evidence has gone up. In 2014, if 447 cases were detected using CCTV cameras, in 2018, it was 3,885 cases.