BB Desk
On June 28, a two-day-old baby girl was found abandoned in a blue plastic basket outside the Swapnalay Girls’ Orphanage in Takka Colony, Panvel. Startled by the feeble cries of baby at dawn break, the locals hurried to find the newborn wrapped in cloth, laying helplessly on the sidewalk with a handwritten note likely left behind by her biological parents. The infant was instantly rushed to Panvel Sub-District Hospital for a medical examination by police, where the doctors confirmed she is stable and under observation.
The child is currently placed under the care of a charitable organisation and the state child welfare committee which will decide on her long-term rehabilitation alternatives besides foster care or adoption. After the incident, the very next day, Panvel police managed to locate the baby’s parents using CCTV footage and car’s registration number. The father of the child was found to be a 23-year-old unemployed engineer based in Bhiwandi while the mother is a 20-year-old woman from Mumbra, who also happens to be distant relative of the man.
According to the police, the two were in a relationship and wanted to marry but their families were against the union. Amidst all this, the woman got pregnant and gave birth to the baby at a private hospital in Mumbra. Though the couple had claimed to be married at the time of delivery, the legality of their marriage is yet to be ascertained. The police further added, “Financial difficulties and desperate situation of the couple pushed them to abandon the child which they later regretted. The couple has been booked under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Juvenile Justice Act.
In another incident, a woman reportedly abandoned her 15-day-old baby boy while travelling in a harbour line local train on Monday afternoon. Charges have been filed against the woman under the Juvenile Justice Act and a search is launched to track her down. According to Vashi Railway police, the woman aged between 30 and 35 boarded the women’s general compartment of CSMT-Panvel local train at the Sanpada station. She was sitting close to the footboard with baby and luggage in tow when two women commuters – Divya Naidu and Bhoomika Mane both aged 19 noticed her. They requested the woman to move away for her safety.
After that, she initiated a conversation with them asking if they could hold her baby while she alighted at Seawoods railway station with her luggage. The two young women readily volunteered to assist and stayed on until Seawoods though they were originally scheduled to get off at Juinagar. When the train halted at Seawoods around 12.30 pm, the two women got down with the infant anticipating the woman would follow. But to their shock, she remained seated in the train as it moved past the station. Naidu and Mane kept on waiting, hoping the woman would return but she did not. Thereafter, they took the baby home and informed the local as well as Vashi Railway Police.
The infant has been admitted to NMMC Hospital’s Intensive care unit in Vashi for medical care and observation. The police have formed four teams to trace the woman. Based on the CCTV footage that showed her getting down at Khandeshwar station, the police has circulated the woman’s images in nearby residential and slum areas. A DNA test is also being planned to confirm if she is the biological mother of the child.
