The newborn girl recovered from Ghurabandha jungles on Friday night is critically ill at MGM hospital, but the parents of the infant stolen from the same hospital last Wednesday are certain that this rescued baby is their daughter.

Weighing 1.5kg and with scratches all over her body, the newborn has respiratory problems, deputy superintendent of MGM hospital Nakul Prasad Chaudhury said.

“Her condition is critical. She is underweight and has been exposed to the cold in the jungle. She has acute breathing problems. We are giving her oxygen,” Chaudhury said. “Whether this baby is the one stolen from the hospital last Wednesday is now secondary. Our main aim is to save this baby’s life,” Chaudhury said.

Horo Purty of Chaibasa, whose daughter was stolen a few hours after her birth from the hospital by a middle-aged woman on Wednesday, on Sunday said he was sure the girl at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was the same baby his wife Pangela gave birth to.

“This is our baby, she has the same birthmark on her head. There is no question of two babies, there’s only one baby, who was stolen from the hospital and now found,” Purty said as his wife lay on her maternity ward bed, recovering from her C-section surgery.

Sakchi police station officer-in-charge L.P. Mandal said the police were waiting for this newborn to recover.

“Horo Purty had lodged an FIR about his daughter getting stolen from MGM hospital on Wednesday. He claims the newborn under treatment is theirs. We have to wait for the baby’s recovery before we set about determining if Horo and Pangela are the baby’s bona fide parents by means of a DNA test,” the policeman said.