CHENNAI: Tambaram police have arrested a 38-year-old woman for kidnapping the newborn boy of a young mother in the promise of getting government aid for both the mother and child.

A day after the kidnap, police on Friday traced the child to a hospital in Tiruverkadu where he was abandoned.

Police said that they arrested the kidnapper, Deepa, from a hideout in Karur. Deepa had enacted a pregnancy drama with her husband for several months and kidnapped the child to raise as her child. However, she abandoned him at the hospital after the child developed an epileptic attack.

Deepa, on Thursday, went to a house in Kannagi Nagar posing as government staff and told the mother Nishanthi about the various welfare schemes that are available for young mothers and persuaded Nishanthi to accompany her to T Nagar to complete the process.

They stopped for lunch in between and Deepa escaped with the child when Nishanthi went to the restroom. Nishanthi alerted her family members and filed a police complaint. The police perused the CCTV footage and zeroed in on the auto-rickshaws used by the kidnapper and traced the child to a hospital in Tiruverkadu. Deepa’s husband had raised doubts about the child and alerted the police and the hospital authorities while Deepa fled town.