On his way to the office yesterday morning, constable Mahfijur Rahman of Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (RMP) got a weird tip-off.

"I had just got out of home to go the office," said the Detective Branch (DB) constable. "It made me curious. Apparently, some woman in the city's Raninagar slum had given birth, but none of her neighbours had seen her pregnant." As things unfolded, this curiosity ultimately lead to the return of a four-day old infant to her mother's lap.

Mahfijur took a detour to the slum before going to office. There, he saw the woman in question, Mousumi Begum (23), and her husband Md Sajib (25) cradling the infant as if she was their new born daughter.

Locals said they had never seen Mousumi pregnant, not just prior to this "childbirth", but ever since the couple's marriage several years ago. Mousumi had told her neighbours she gave birth on a street the previous night while she was returning home.

Mahfij gathered the insights and reported back to office. This set some alarms off. The previous day, a baby had gone missing from Rajshahi Medical College Hospital (RMCH). A CCTV footage showed a woman going into the section and stealing a newborn, Abdullah Al Mamun, Deputy Commissioner of the DB, RMP, told this correspondent.

DB officials immediately formed a five-member operation team -- led by ASP Rakibul Islam -- and dispatched them for investigation.

The team visited Mousumi's house and found her appearance matching with the woman in the CCTV footage. The team proceeded to take the infant into their care and arrested the couple.

The baby was found out to be the daughter of Shilpi Rani Das and her husband Masum Rabi Das, of the city's Baganpara area. On Wednesday, Shilpi had given birth to the infant at RMCH.

On Friday, Mousumi snuck into the hospital and posed as an aide helping Shilpi in her chores at the hospital.

After the baby went missing, her father Masum filed a general diary with Rajpara police station.

The team contacted the couple, informed them of the situation, called them to check their claims, and handed the child's care over to them. On the verge of losing hopez Shilpi and Masum broke down on getting their beloved back.

However, although this paints a success story of RMP, the same body came under fire for the breach, along with Ansar and the hospital security. Despite their combined security sphere -- consisting of a police contingent, some 100 members of Ansar, and 75 CCTV cameras -- Mousumi still managed to steal the infant, which shows negligence on all their parts.

And this is not the first time such an incident has occurred. Two infants had gone missing from the hospital in 2013 and 2014, none of whom could be rescued.

"It was a bit of good luck and prompt action of police that helped with the rescue," DB's DC Abdullah Al Mamun said last afternoon.

When contacted, RMCH Deputy Director Dr Saiful Ferdous said though it's unfortunate, sometimes miscreants do manage to breach the security measures. "The incident occurred despite our efforts," he said.