One-day-old child found abandoned; cops adopt her, name her Swadha

At a temperature of 19 degrees Celsius on Tuesday night, an infant who was born barely a day ago, was zipped up in a cloth bag of ‘502 pataka chai’ allegedly by her parents and left abandoned at a footpath in posh South Delhi’s RK Puram area near Munirka flyover on Tuesday. Two CCTV cameras including a high resolution camera would have captured the identities of the insane human who had left the girl child to die had they been functional!

At around 12.04 am, the police control room received a call informing that a newborn girl was found at a footpath. When a PCR team reached the spot opposite Aggarwal Sweets near Vasant Vihar depot, they found her lying inside a bag without clothes. However, a cotton dupatta and a milk bottle were also found in the bag.

She was immediately rushed to AIIMS Trauma Centre and later shifted to AIIMS nursery. In the meantime, the local police of RK Puram police station also reached the hospital. Sub-Inspector Subhash, who is the Investigating Officer of the case, ordered clothes and milk for her that was later fed to her by a female constable.

Swadha, is the name given to her by Delhi Police who are taking care of her at AIIMS hospital. Two police personnel including a female cop have been deployed outside the ward despite the hospital staff denying to accept security.

When she was admitted to the hospital she was shivering but the doctors declared her out of danger. However, there is a possibility that she had received a hairline fracture in her skull. The tests to examine the injury have been conducted.

According to police, teams have been formed who are looking for the details from the nearby hospitals where the girl child were born at least 36 hours before the infant was found.

Meanwhile, sources close to investigation said that there were two CCTV cameras installed at the T-point under the flyover and could have captured the incident. “During investigation, both the cameras were found to be non-functional,” the source added.

A case under Section 317 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against unknown persons at RK Puram police station.

Recently, an AIIMS study on medico-legal autopsy findings of 238 foetuses and newborns abandoned in the area between 1996-2012 points towards female foeticide in the national Capital.