27 October,2016 08:09 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
In a shocking incident, the RCF police have recovered the body of a newborn baby which was bitten by rats at various places after it was dumped by unidentified people
In a shocking incident, the Chembur police have recovered the body of a newborn baby which was bitten by rats at various places after it was dumped by unidentified people on Tuesday night.
The infant, who was spotted in the early hours of Wednesday by a passerby, who then informed the local police.
Police said that they received a message around 5.20 am about a body of a newborn was lying near a garbage bin close to some buildings beside Navjeevan Society. On receiving the message, the RCF police rushed to the spot and found the body.
"The body was of a female child and we immediately took it to Rajawadi Hospital, where it was declared dead before admission," senior inspector Dilip Raut of RCF police station, told Free Press Journal. The officer added that they made inquiries in the vicinity to find out if the child belonged to anyone, but they could not get any information.
Medical sources revealed that the umbilical cord of the infant was still intact and it had not even been clamped when it was dumped by the culprits. An autopsy was also carried out on the body which showed injury marks on the head and liver. "The person who abandoned the body had probably thrown it from a distance, which seems to have caused the injuries. This is a deliberate act of killing and the death is due to these injuries," sources told FPJ.
Further, there were several deep marks of rat bite on the stomach and sides of the body. Since the body was dumped in the open, rats bit it at different places, thereby causing further bleeding.
The police have registered a case under sections 317 (wrongful abandonment of child) and 304(2) (committing rash and negligent act). The police are in the process of of making inquiries to find out if there was any woman in the area who was pregnant and who was to deliver during this period. The police would also study the autopsy findings and investigate the matter accordingly.
The police have also decided to preserve DNA samples of the newborn, which could be later used to match against the parents, sources said. The officers suspect that the parents did not want the child and hence decided to get rid of it after it was born.
