Assam: Mother reunites with child swapped at birth 3yrs ago
In a bizarre incident, a boy was reunited with his biological parents three years after birth in Assam's Barpeta district. Reportedly, the child was negligently handed over to the wrong set of parents at the government-run Fakruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital at birth in 2019. However, a court-ordered DNA test ascertained his original parents, thus settling their legal dispute with another family.
A woman named Nazma Khanam gave birth to a boy on May 3, 2019, but the child was shifted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after some health issues. However, the hospital staff later told Khanam and her husband that their child had died during treatment. The couple initially refused to take the newborn's body claiming it was not theirs but eventually accepted it.
After a few days, the couple went to the medical college and found in the records that another woman—who had the same name and similar surname (Khatun)—had given birth to a male child around the same time. Then, a case of child swapping was filed by Khanam with the Barpeta Police. During the investigation, it was found that Khatun's baby had died during treatment.
Khanam's family claimed she gave birth to a healthy child and he couldn't die. A case was registered under the IPC Sections 120(B) (criminal conspiracy) and 363 (punishment for kidnapping). In October 2020, the investigating officer filed a prayer petition before a Barpeta court for a DNA test. Following the test and the court's directive, the child was handed over to his biological mother.
During the investigation, the police found that the DNA samples of the three-year-old child, who was raised by Nazma Khatun, matched those of Khanam's. Khatun's husband said that they had agreed to the DNA test since they were sure that the baby was theirs. "Now the court has ordered that this is their (Khanam) child. We are shocked," Khatun's husband said.
