IANS

Lucknow, Jun 16: An Uttar Pradesh woman has alleged that a minister in the Mayawati government had stolen her new-born son from a hospital six years ago.

Pramila Sharma of Deoria district was here Monday for a DNA test to substantiate her claim that the six-year-old son of Religious Endowment Minister Rajesh Tripathi was actually hers.

Parmila's husband Ashok Sharma said in 2004 her wife gave birth to a baby boy in the Gorakhpur medical college. Tripathi's sister who was her friend had come to visit her in the hospital.

"Tripathi's sister visited us in the hospital when the boy was born and on the third day, the boy was stolen from the ward. We searched for about 15 days and one day we saw Tripathi's sister carrying the child," Ashok Sharma told reporters here.

He said the family approached Tripathi, who was a journalist then, to return the child but he didn't. "We lodged an FIR against him," he said.

The matter was later taken to a court where Pramila insisted that she was ready for a DNA test at her own expenses.

"We have come here after the court's order and are waiting for the minister to arrive since the morning," Sharma said.

Sharma alleged that Tripathi offered him money to give up the claim of the child.

"Tripathi has been claiming in newspapers since then (after the kid went missing) that he found the child abandoned and has adopted him. If his claims are true, why is he avoiding the test," said Sharma.

The minister could not be contacted for his comments.

The Forensic Science Laboratory of Lucknow has the facility of only collecting DNA samples which are then sent to Bangalore or Hyderabad for examination.

"It takes 15 to 20 days to get the final results," an officer at the FSL told IANS.