Five-day-old baby's mother returns to claim her son

Two days after MiD DAY reported how a three-day-old baby boy was abandoned by his parents in civic-run Sion hospital, the infant's mother Bharati Mahato (20) returned to the paediatric ward of the hospital on Saturday afternoon. The father's whereabouts, however, are yet unknown.

Bharati Mahato at Sion hospital

Roshan Mahato, the infant, was born with a congenital defect known as imperforate anus (where the infant's anus is missing), in a Palghar civic hospital on Monday. A day later, his parents, Pramod and Bharati Mahato got him admitted to Sion hospital where he underwent a colostomy on the same night. The parents disappeared from the hospital premises on Wednesday morning around 8 am after which a complaint
was filed at the hospital police chowki.

Dr Avinash Supe, dean of Sion hospital, said, "A case was registered in the hospital chowki on the same day. We tried calling up the parents and also sent a letter at their house in Boisar. However, we were unable to get in touch with them."

At around 4.30 pm on Saturday, Roshan's mother headed back to the hospital along with her neighbour, Sudarshan Mandal (34), from Boisar in Raigad district. On arriving at the paediatric surgery ward of the hospital, she inquired about her son who is currently recuperating. Soon after, she was taken to the police chowki where she informed the cops that she had headed back to Boisar looking for her husband who had disappeared on Wednesday.

"I returned to the hospital after I was unable to find my husband inspite of searching for him since Wednesday. I plan to take my son back home once his treatment here is complete," said Bharati who hails from Jharkhand. She, however, is unaware about her husband's whereabouts as she informed the police that despite repeated attempts to contact him, his phone remained switched off.

Pramod worked at a construction site in Boisar. The couple's neighbour, Sudarshan, said that Pramod was a short-tempered and absent-minded person. "He worked as a daily wage labourer to support his family. His wife is also running short on funds now and had to come back to Boisar to get some money to support herself in the city," he said.

The cops as well as the hospital staff confirmed that Bharati is indeed Roshan's mother.

"The infant's mother came back to the ward asking for him. We immediately notified the hospital police chowki and took her there for interrogation," said an ayah from the paediatric ward of the hospital.
Baby Roshan's condition is now stable and he was shifted to the general ward of the hospital from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) on Saturday, said Dr Supe.

Further investigations are now on to trace the infant's father, said a constable from the police chowki.u00a0