NEW DELHI, Feb. 19 -- A day after a 40-year-old woman and her 22-year-old partner were arrested for allegedly stealing a three-day-old baby boy from Rohini's Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital, police said the woman needed the child to show the man's family in Uttar Pradesh's Unnao that they were married and had a child together to ensure his family accepted them.

Deputy commissioner of police (Rohini) Rajiv Ranjan said the kidnapping came to light around 9am on Tuesday after the infant's mother discovered both her baby and the woman missing from the ward.

The child's father immediately alerted police. A team reached the spot and learnt that the 30-year-old mother, a Narela resident, was admitted to the hospital on February 12 and delivered a...