When a small white bundle landed on the centre of a narrow road winding through a posh residential area in the heart of Kochi city in Kerala on May 3 morning, not many saw it. And the few who might have hardly noticed it.
In a city where people think nothing about dumping garbage wrapped in plastic covers at another’s doorstep, this could have even passed off for such an everyday act. Around 8 a.m., the peak hour traffic was also an hour away or so.
Jithin Kumar, 40, a contract driver, who happened to drive through the road around 15 minutes later, however, did take notice. “It was hard to miss since it lay right on the middle of the road,” he says.
He parked his vehicle by the side of the road and walked up towards the bundle. “I initially thought it was a doll. Only when I approached closer did I realise that there was a blood-soaked baby lying there and the cover in which the baby was packed was lying by the side. It was heartbreaking,” Jithin recollects.
Soon, a few more people gathered and an SOS was sent to the emergency response support system number 112. The police rushed to the scene around 8.30 a.m. and launched a primary investigation.
Even as the investigation was progressing, the police had blocked the road on the both sides and put up a tarpaulin tent around the body for conducting an inquest. By that time, a large crowd had assembled in the area.
Shortly, it emerged that the newborn baby boy was flung from one of the apartments nearby. The two-block apartment complex has 21 units and three of them were unoccupied.
“We summoned the ASHA workers concerned but, according to the reports with the Kochi Corporation, there were no pregnant women in the said apartments. The police had taken the statement of the ASHA worker concerned,” says Antony Painumthara, councillor of Elamkulam division in the neighbourhood.
Barcode on packet scanned
The police started going door-to-door when it emerged that the white packet of an e-commerce major in which the baby was wrapped in bore an address, which, though, was not fully legible since it was blood-stained. However, there was a barcode and scanning it gave the police a specific address, which matched a fifth-floor apartment occupied by a family of three – a husband, wife and their 23-year-old unmarried daughter.
“The police have zeroed in on the apartment based on the address on the packet. Blood stain was also found in the bathroom of the apartment,” said the division councillor concerned.
Reports then emerged that the baby was probably flung from a balcony facing the road. Across the road was a makeshift dump yard, which was probably the target.
A CCTV near the compound wall of the apartment facing the road had also captured the act, albeit partly. It showed the bundle flying over a tree branch but the person who flung it could not be seen. There was no CCTV in the opposite apartment that could have captured the person.
Without parents’ knowledge: police
By the time the inquest was over around noon, District Police Chief (Kochi City) S. Syamsundar arrived at the scene. Addressing the media later, he said the couple’s lone daughter had delivered the baby in her bathroom at 5 a.m. and threw the baby away after three hours without the knowledge of her parents. “The woman, as per her statement, is a rape survivor,” he said.
“It was a gruesome incident. She had locked herself in her room and the parents had no clue neither about the delivery nor the fact that she was pregnant. We have registered a case for murder against her for the time being. If the baby proves to be a stillborn, which would be known only from the post-mortem examination and inquest reports, we will drop the charges,” Mr. Syamsundar said.
Meanwhile, the police discreetly whisked the woman away without drawing the attention of the large media contingent for medical check-up at the General Hospital, Ernakulam. Later, her arrest was recorded.
