A tribunal here today convicted a husband and his wife to jail on different terms on charges of stealing a newborn baby from Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH) around two years back.
Wife Mousumi Begum, 26, has been sentenced to jail for 10 years while her husband Sazib Ahmed, 29, for five years. The tribunal also fined them Tk 50,000 each, in default, to suffer six-month more behind bars.
Judge of Human Trafficking Crimes Prevention Tribunal Ayez Uddin found them guilty of the charge beyond doubt and pronounced the verdict in their presence in the court.
The prosecution story, in brief, is that Shilpi Rani Das, wife of Masum Rabi Das, gave birth to a baby daughter in Ward No. 30 of Rajshahi Medical College Hospital on January 20, 2021. But, the newborn was stolen around 10 pm of the same day.
Masum Rabi lodged a case with Rajpara Police Station in this connection on the following day. Police recovered the baby from a water tank area at Ward No. 25 in the city and arrested Sazib and Mousumi one day later of filing the case.
Upon completion of the investigation, police pressed a charge-sheet accusing the couple on September 9 of the same year. Public Prosecutor of the tribunal Shafiqul Islam conducted the case on behalf of the state while Advocate Hasanul Sohag defended the accused couple.
