Chennai,   Tamil Nadu Police on Monday rescued a five-day-old baby girl, who was stolen from Pollachi government hospital.

The Coimbatore district police traced the baby to Palakkad.

Police arrested Shameema, 34, and her 15-year-old daughter from Koduvayoor in Palakkad district this morning and handed over the infant to its mother.

Coimbatore Superintendent of Police, V. Badarinarayanan, while speaking to media, pointed out: "We examined visuals from nearly 250 surveillance cameras to trace the accused and the new-born. The priority of the police was to rescue the infant safely and hand it over to the mother. Police accomplished the mission with the help of hospital authorities, Railway, and other government departments." The SP said that 12 special teams of the police were pressed into service.

Police found that the accused travelled from Pollachi to Coimbatore by bus and from Coimbatore to Palakkad by train. The team traced the accused to a house at Palakkad and took Shameema and her 15-year daughter into custody along with the infant.

According to Coimbatore Police Superintendent, who led the investigation, Shameema had two daughters and a son and was separated from her husband Hakkim. She was in a relationship with another person called Manikandan.

She had lied to Manikandan that she was pregnant after he expressed a desire to have a child. Police said that the woman stole the infant to present Manikandan as their baby.

The police team said that the mother of infant Y. Divyabharathi received the child with tears. The child was stolen from her bed between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Sunday morning.

The infant was born in early hours of June 29 after the mother was admitted on June 27.