ROURKELA: The newborn baby of a homeless woman, who gave birth at a platform of the Rourkela railway station, reportedly died due to lack of care in the wee hours of Sunday.
Soon after the newborn girl’s death, her alcoholic father reportedly dumped her body near Gopabandhupali. The incident came to light in the afternoon after residents of Gopabandhupali found the body on the premises of Rourkela Steel Plant.
Sources said a homeless couple from Angul was staying at different platforms of the railway station for the past fortnight. At around Saturday midnight, the pregnant homeless woman delivered the baby at platform 5 in the biting cold. Due to lack of care, the baby girl died a couple of hours later. The baby’s father later dumped the body clandestinely in the darkness. After locating the body, local residents with help of police performed the newborn’s last rites.
Rourkela SP Nitesh Wadhwani said preliminary investigation revealed that the couple was alcoholic and eked out a living by doing menial jobs. The baby was born premature, probably a stillbirth. “The method of disposing of the body by the couple was both careless and inhuman, but they did not have any role in death of the baby. The GRP is aware of the incident and it is up to them to take further action, if necessary,” he added.