5-month-old foetus found in garbage dump

Ajay Joshi

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 14

Almost after 45 days a newborn boy was found abandoned at a garbage dump area near the Focal Point area, the city police today spotted another foetus in the same area.

The five-month-old foetus was reportedly thrown in the dumping area adjacent to the Focal Point canal. Residents of the Sanjay Gandhi Colony located the foetus and informed the police. The police recovered the foetus and sent it to the Civil Hospital for autopsy. An FIR against an unknown person has been lodged at the Division No. 8 police station under Section 315 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Sub Inspector Sanjeev Kumar, who is investigating the case, said: “The foetus was apparently abandoned in the wee hours and we received the information around 10.45 am after a commuter called up the police helpline number. So far, it is not clear why the child was abandoned and the police were investigating the matter. Besides, the gender of the baby could not be verified as the lower part was not fully grown. Further details will be known after the arrival of the post-mortem examination report.”

As many as 11 cases of abandoned babies have been recorded in the district since July last year. These doesn’t include cases which have gone unreported.

There is no let-up in such gruesome incidents of babies being abandoned in the city. The babies abandoned include newborn girls wrapped in polythene bags, foetuses of children and the two cases in the past two days in which babies were thrown into canals. However, none of the cases could be traced out by the police.

The investigating officer said as the area was mostly crowded by migrants and situated near the national highway, no CCTV cameras were installed there.

He said he would write a letter to the Municipal Corporation to clean up the dump so that such incidents could be curbed. “In addition, in most of the cases, the babies were abandoned in the midnight at isolated spots. Hence, it becomes tough for us to trace the culprits. Besides, due to the unavailability of a proper count of pregnant women, especially migrants, the identification becomes tricky,” said Ravinder Kumar, SHO, Police Division 5, who also dealt with a similar case this year.

Past incidents

• A six-month-old foetus found floating in a canal near Gulab Devi Road on July 5 this year.
• A commuter spotted a newborn girl at a roadside garbage dump near Milap Chowk on April 11. The newborn, wrapped in a polythene bag, died later.
• On February 24, a newborn girl, wrapped in a polythene bag, had been found abandoned in a drain at Balmiki Hadiabad.
• Two male foetuses were found abandoned in a garbage dump outside a local school on October 12, 2018.
• On September 2, 2018, an abandoned newborn was found dead in the toilet of the Shahkot Civil Hospital.
• On September 22, 2018, a seven-day-old baby girl was found abandoned at Kalia colony. She was later rescued.
• A man was arrested for dumping his baby girl at Jyoti Chowk on September 26, 2018.