Patna: A five-year-old girl who went missing from a Patna hospital on Wednesday was found safe 12 hours after allegedly being abducted with the help of a female security guard.
Police said Dhaneshwari Kumari, the daughter of Ajay Kumar from Maner Telpa village in the Bikram police station area, disappeared from the ESIC hospital in Bihta shortly after 11am. Her mother, Sapna Kumari, has been undergoing treatment at the hospital since December 6, and the child had been staying with her.
According to her father, the child vanished within minutes while he stepped out of the ward for a blood test. “I went out for a blood test, and when I came back, my daughter was gone. She disappeared in just 10 minutes,” he said.
A search was launched after the family filed a complaint at Bihta police station. Officers reviewed CCTV footage from the ward to the hospital’s main gate. The video showed a young man, his face covered with a cloth, leading the child away after offering her candy. The footage also showed him in the company of a female security guard.
Police detained the guard for questioning. Investigators later said she had confessed to conspiring with the young man, who is a relative, to abduct the child. The girl was allegedly taken to the Phulwarisharif area on the outskirts of Patna.
The accused man has been arrested, and the child was recovered unharmed. Police say the investigation is ongoing, including the motive behind the abduction.
