BENGALURU: In the second such case over the past week, the body of a male newborn was found abandoned in front of Clarence High School playground on Sundaramurthi Road in Cox Town on Saturday morning.
According to police, Emanuel, a sweeper, found the baby and alerted the police control room. Pulakeshinagar police arrived at the spot around 7.45 am and sent the body to Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital. A senior officer of Pulakeshinagar police station said, “We have given a requisition to Bowring Hospital to preserve it for three days after which due process will be followed. Information will be relayed to all police stations and checked against missing child complaints. If unclaimed, the child will be buried. A case against unidentified persons has been filed under IPC Section 318 (concealment of birth by secret disposal of dead body).”
An passerby, employed with a private firm, who had taken a picture of the abandoned baby, told Express, “I was on my way for cricket practice around 7 am. There were a lot of bystanders in the middle of the road in front of the school. They were panicky and one of them called the police.”
J J George, a senior citizen who stays in an adjacent apartment, said, “Early in the morning I saw a crowd gathering in the middle of the ground. A child wrapped in a red and green cloth was lying abandoned on the concrete slab in the middle of the road. There was no movement so we presumed it was dead. Surprisingly, it was a male child. A police van took it away.”
Dr K S Manjunath, medical superintendent, Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital, said, “We have only been asked to keep it in the mortuary. If the police investigation reveals foulplay and they ask us to do a postmortem, we will. The baby was a day or two old, we are told. Meanwhile, if anyone claims the child, we will hand over the baby.”
