Mumbai: Cops to take DNA test to nail baby's father for rape

The hunt is on for the father of the newborn who was thrown to death from a posh Versova tower hours after it was born, by its scared teenaged mother. Police will take the DNA samples of the baby and also the person whom the mother, a young domestic help, points out as the father of the child in order to charge the latter for rape.

Police suspect the child was thrown from the toilet window of a sixth-floor flat in Atlantis building in Versova

mid-day had reported on the shocking incident yesterday, wherein the house help allegedly threw her just-born baby boy from the toilet window of Atlantis building on J P Road, Versova. An anonymous caller reported the incident, which occurred on Saturday night, to the police.

mid-day's front page report yesterday

Also read: Maid throws her newborn baby to death from 6th flr of Versova building

The police found the girl bleeding in a sixth-floor apartment, and got her admitted to Cooper Hospital, where she is currently in the ICU. Though her age was given as 18, initial medical reports pointed out she is a minor. Further investigations revealed the baby was strangulated to death, since marks were found on its neck; injury marks were also found on its head and stomach.

The boy was wrapped in a cloth and thrown from a window. The maid has been booked for murder and concealing birth by disposing dead body. Police are now awaiting her recovery so they can take her statement to know who the father of the child is. The accused was eight months pregnant, according to police sources.

Hence, DNA samples of the child and the father, as named by the accused, will be compared. Should they match, the father will be charged with rape since the girl is a minor.

Employers involved?
Police officials from Versova police station said they are also going to question the employers of the girl, who own the apartment in which the woman gave birth and allegedly killed the child. The family owns a duplex flat while they stay on the seventh floor, the girl was found on the sixth.

According to police sources, the wife of the flat's owner and his daughter told the police in primary questioning that they had taken the girl to a private hospital on Saturday evening when she complained of stomach pain. After that, they claimed, they left her in the sixth-floor flat. Senior police inspector Arundhati Rane also confirmed this.

The police's needle of suspicion is also pointing at the owners, who claim to have had no knowledge of the pregnancy, even though the girl was eight months into it. The owners had also told the police the girl began working for them around eight months ago. "The employers are responsible for hiding the case and evidence.

We will interrogate them soon and might possibly take the owner's DNA samples," said a police officer from Versova police station. "We have already registered a case under Sections 302 (murder) and 318 (concealment of birth by secret disposal of dead body) against the domestic help. We are investigating all possible angles," said Arundhati Rane, senior police inspector, Versova police station.