A woman and her teenage daughter were apprehended on Monday in Palakkad for allegedly stealing a five-day-old girl from the Government Hospital in Pollachi, police said.

The duo were identified as 34-year-old Shameena and her 14-year-old daughter from Palakkad, and they are being interrogated, police said.

The newborn baby was abducted from the hospital in the early hours of Sunday and police had formed 12 special teams to trace the abductors.

Based on CCTV footage from various places, the duo was traced at the city railway station, after they had boarded a bus from Pollachi and travelled to Palakkad in a train, they said.

One of the special teams rushed to Koduvayur near Palakkad and rescued the child and handed the baby over to its mother Dhivyabharathi around 5 am on Monday.

Interrogation is on to ascertain whether the woman, who was apparently deserted by her husband, is involved in child trafficking, police added.  

According to reports, the baby's mother told Pollachi Police that she had breastfed the baby around 1 am and made her sleep beside her in the maternity ward of the hospital. By 5 am the mother had realised that the baby was missing.

The suspects from hospital CCTV were traced to Coimbatore Bus Stand and later the Railway Station.

In January, a newborn was stolen from the Kottayam Medical College Hospital and found within hours from the vicinity. A woman, in the guise of a nurse, had stolen the baby from the maternity ward.

Timely intervention by locals and the district police had helped the baby reunite with its family, then.