Baby swap: police may go for DNA test,if necessary

The Oshiwara police said it would carry out a blood test to check whether the baby girl’s blood matches with that of Sartaj and Reshma Banoo. The baby was delivered on April 15 at the Oshiwara maternity home. “If necessary,a DNA test will be carried out,” said Senior Police Inspector Kiran Sonone.

The civic body has said it will wait for the police to perform a DNA test on the baby. Results are expected in a month’s time. In the meantime,the baby girl will be taken to home by the couple,said the officials.

Executive Health Officer Dr Jairaj Thanekar said the incident of baby swapping never took place. “The doctors have always maintained that it was a girl child. Even the operation note,which is recorded immediately after the delivery in the operation theatre,says the baby is a girl,” he said.

Sartaj (26),a fruit vendor and a father of two daughters,has accused the authorities of civic-run Oshiwara Maternity Home of substituting someone else’s daughter for his son.

Dr Thanekar said that considering the clinic is small,chances of baby swapping are almost negligible. “All the measures are taken to ensure that incidents like swapping are avoided. Moreover,at the time of delivery Reshma was the only patient who delivered the baby,” he said.

Officials said a total of 11 deliveries took place on the same day-seven male children and four female children. A baby boy was born four hours before Reshma’s delivery,said officials.

“Senior doctors investigating the case are forcing me to accept the baby girl. But I will not accept her unless the DNA tests prove that she is my daughter. If they continue forcing me to accept the girl,I will move the court,” said Sartaj.

“Nurses forced my wife to breastfeed the baby girl in the morning. In the afternoon,they asked my wife to go to the incubator room and feed her after every two hours,” he said.

Sartaj claimed that after the delivery a ward boy had come out with the baby and it was a boy. But after some time,two women doctors came with some papers and declared it was a baby girl,he alleged.