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An Accra Circuit Court yesterday issued a bench warrant for the arrest of a couple accused of stealing a three-month-old baby. The right for the custody of the baby boy is now a subject of litigation as the couple also initiate an action to have the baby stay with them. The couple, Samuel Denyoh Yao, a Radiation Therapist at the Cancer Department of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital and his wife, Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, lecturer, are said to have allegedly stolen the baby from the biological mother, Rashida Abdallah. However, when the case was called for hearing in the court presided over by Sedina Agbemeva, the couple did not show up for the proceedings, compelling the trial judge to issue the bench warrant for their arrest and accordingly adjourning hearing to Tuesday June 24. Their pleas were not taken. The prosecutor, ASP Sarah Acquah, told the court that the complainant in the case is one Rashida Abdallah, unemployed, while the accused persons are residents of New Weija, a suburb of Accra. She said the complainant lived with the couple as a house help for the past three years and that sometime in July 2013, the complainant became pregnant and mentioned one Kwame as the person responsible, adding that on March 6, 2014, Rashida gave birth at the Ga South Municipal Hospital and was discharged. ASP Acquah averred that the couple refused Rashida access to her baby and subsequently refused exclusive breastfeeding of the baby by the biological mother with the reason that a medical doctor, one Dr. Kusi Kum at the Ga South Municipal Hospital, had directed that the complainant should not get close to the baby or would infect the baby with rashes. The prosecutor further told the court that on May 3, 2014, the couple asked the complainant to go to her mother without giving her the baby; with another reason that she had become disrespectful. ASP Acquah insisted that all efforts by Rashida and her family to collect the baby proved futile and so a complaint was lodged with the New Weija Police Station. The prosecutor further stated that the couple were invited by the police on three occasions but they refused to report until they were arrested on June 11, at their residence and the baby released to the mother the same day. According to the prosecutor, the couple denied the offence.