28 January,2014 09:51 AM IST | | Shiva Devnath
A nail polish seller aboard a CST-Belapur train picked up an abandoned bag in the ladies' coach and got down at Kurla; when he saw a boy inside, he tried to dump the bag and flee, but a ticket checker caught him
A hawker on a Harbour line train got the shock of his life when a bag he hoped might contain valuables turned out to have a baby inside. The incident occurred with Kishor Kale (20), a nail polish seller who used to stay at Shahu Nagar, Kurla. Late in the afternoon yesterday, Kale caught a train to Belapur from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) and was selling his in the ladies' compartment.
He noticed an abandoned bag near the footboard of the coach. When nobody came forward to claim it after several stations went past, Kale picked it up and got off at Kurla around 3.45 pm, hoping the bag would contain some valuables. When he was climbing the foot over bridge from platform number 7, curiosity got the better of him. He decided to open the bag; when he unzipped it, a baby's hand reached out to him.
Wadala GRP officials at Kurla. A woman constable (in green) holds the bag in which the baby was found
Shocked and completely taken by surprise, Kale tried to abandon the baby and run from the spot. But, an alert ticket collector spotted a panicking Kale and caught hold of him. On opening the bag completely, everyone on was shocked to see a 15-day-old infant inside.
The vendor was taken to the Kurla Government Railway Police (GRP), where he claimed to have found the bag in the train and picked it up, assuming there would be cash inside it. He told police he didn't know whom the baby belonged to. The case was then transferred to the Wadala GRP, because the incident had occurred under their jurisdiction, before the train pulled into Kurla railway station.
An officer from the Wadala GRP said, "It's good that the hawker found the bag. Had the child been inside for 10 more minutes, he would've died." Jitendra Rathod, senior police inspector, Wadala GRP, confirmed the incident, saying, "We have found the baby with the hawker. We don't know if the story he is telling is true. We will check the CCTV footage of cameras installed between CST and Kurla to verify his claims."
Meanwhile, the boy was taken to Bhabha Hospital, where a medical check-up revealed he was healthy. He was later sent to Asha Sadan, a children's home in Dongri. "Kale is still in our custody and we're investigating further into the case. He inadvertently saved the boy when he decided to open the bag at Kurla.
Otherwise the baby would've died inside during the journey," added the officer. Police are also enquiring in nearby maternity homes to determine which women had recently given birth to baby boys, in order to identify the mother of the child.
