JAGATSINGHPUR: A 25-year-old woman of Balikuda has reportedly refused to hand over her newborn baby to her husband and in-laws who allegedly subjected her to domestic violence.
After giving birth to a baby boy on Monday, Sumitra Behera of Nagpur village within Balikuda police limits gave away the newborn to the child welfare committee (CWC) of Jagatsinghpur. The woman claimed she was being tortured by her husband and in-laws for the last five years.
Sources said Sumitra admitted herself to the district headquarters hospital (DHH) on Friday last week for delivery and claimed she was unmarried. Suspecting foul play, the hospital authorities informed the local police and the CWC about her.
After investigation, it was found that Sumitra was married but had decided to divorce her husband alleging years of torture.
After verifying the details, the DHH authorities admitted Sumitra and she delivered a baby boy on Monday. To everyone’s surprise, she refused to hand over the newborn to her husband and gave away the baby to the CWC.
CWC member Bibekananda Bal said, “We took custody of the boy but due to health complication, he was admitted to the special newborn care unit (SNCU) for treatment.”
CWC sources said Sumitra had married Chabbi Behera of Sansola village in Cuttack in 2020. However, she was allegedly subjected to domestic abuse during her stay at her in-laws’ place. Sumitra was pregnant when she left her husband and came to her parents’ house some months back.
On the other hand, Chabbi said, “After being informed about the birth of my son, I went to the hospital but my wife refused to hand him over to me. She did not even inform me about the delivery. I have decided to take legal recourse to get custody of my child.”
District child protection officer Kanhu Charan Rout said without the consent of both the husband and wife, the adoption of the baby is not possible as per the law. “Steps will be taken to reunite the child with the parents after counselling,” he added.