Asheeta Pradeep Umberkar, the 33-year-old chartered accountant who had seized the baby, told police she was driven by an overwhelming instinct to mother a child and had looked after the boy with a tenderness which has touched a chord even in the mother.

Police arrested Asheeta on Thursday night and placed the baby boy back in the arms of his mother, 26-year-old Seema Khade, who has asked the police not to be too harsh on the kidnapper.

A beaming Seema, in a forgiving mood, told Express Newsline that police should go slow on Asheeta as ``she committed the act out of a desire to be a mother.'' Her husband, Shyam, agreed, saying Asheeta had ``undergone a miscarriage twice and one must understand her pain''.

``Allthat matters now is that my baby is back. The kidnapper and her family have looked after my child well,'' she says, showing off the new clothes her son was bundled in when he was returned. Her mother adds: ``Asheeta's mother-in-law had even got the baby vaccinated for BCG.'' The Khades suggest that Asheeta should be counselled so that she can adopt a child if she so wished.

Asheeta has been remanded to jail custody by the 31st Metropolitan Magistrate's Court, Vikhroli, till July 6. She was denied bail by the court today after police lodged a case of kidnapping of a minor child under Sections 365 and 109 of the Indian Penal Code.

But it was sheer determination and a dose of luck that guided the Ghatkopar police in their search for the missing newborn. A major hunt and combing operation launched immediately after the kidnapping took them to Kalyan, where Asheeta was residing with her in-laws.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone VI), Dalbir Bharti, had commissioned a squad of 25 women constables, threewomen sub-inspectors and some policemen in hot pursuit of the yet un-named baby as soon as the kidnapping was reported.

``It was almost a door-to-door campaign for 48 hours,'' recalls constable Meena Dhuri. ``We went knocking from door-to-door and even asked rickshaw drivers whether they had seen a person resembling a sketch of the suspect with a child,'' Dhuri says. The sketch was drawn from descriptions provided by the hospital's staff and patients as Asheeta had cased the premises days before the crime.

Finally, a resident of Pantnagar at Ghatkopar (E) recognised the sketch and told the police he had seen the woman and child near Sai Baba Temple. She seemed to be from a well-to-do family, he told the police, recalls investigating officer Inspector Atmaram Tawade. A door-to-door search was mounted in the vicinity, he explains.

``After a few hours, we located the woman's residence in the neighbourhood. The suspect's father claimed his daughter Asheeta had delivered a baby boy on June 29 at MamtaNursing Home at Garodia Nagar, Ghatkopar (E),'' Tawade says.

Police then checked with Mamta Nursing Home but found no one by that name had registered there. They learnt that the suspect was with her in-laws at Kalyan. It did not take the squad long to locate the woman and child but Asheeta insisted the baby was hers and provided documents to allegedly support her claim. The documents, though, indicated she had only undergone a miscarriage. The game was up and Asheeta broke down and confessed.

Interrogation revealed that Asheeta had miscarried during her fifth month of pregnancy but she had concealed the fact from her husband Pradeep Umbarkar and relatives.

Married for over three years, she feared she might be disowned if she did not deliver a child. The desperate woman had even allowed the seventh month pre-delivery ceremony to be performed. Evidently, the elaborate deception had worked. Thereafter, she all but went into hiding, police said.

Asheeta told the police she did not have a particular childin mind when she picked up Seema's son on Monday. She took the boy only because he was easily accessible.

``The transformation I saw on Seema's face when we handed over her child to her made up for all the effort we put into the case,'' further stated an exhausted Tawde.

Meanwhile, Dr Anjali Shah, wife of Dr Ajay Shah who owns Jeevan Jyot Hospital, refused to comment. However, it is learnt that the 51-year-old matron Felsy Quadros, who was arrested on Wednesday, has resigned from the hospital.

An assistant matron, who was with the hospital since the last 25 years, also plans to resign in October. She says this is the first incident of its kind in the hospital.