Man abandons 6-day-old girl, held

The rescued baby with officials from the Mulund police station; (right) the garbage collector who helped inform the police about the infant girl points at the spot under the bus where the baby was discovered —Asian Age

Mulund police has arrested a man who had abandoned his six-day-old girl near a garbage pile on Jawaharlal Nehru Road, a month ago. The accused apparently wanted a son and when his wife bore him a daughter, he decided not to accept her. The wife too has been arrested for abetting the crime.

On November 5, a bus driver had found the infant under his bus on the road near Apna Bazar Mulund (west). The driver and a garbage collector informed the Mulund police about her. A police official from Mulund station said, “The bus driver heard the cries of the baby when he was cleaning his bus. He was taken aback to find the baby under his bus, near the front wheels. We then visited the spot and brought the baby to the police station. We were shocked as the girl was dumped near a garbage pile and there were so many insects roaming around the baby. We immediately consulted doctors and according to their suggestions, started feeding her milk.”

Speaking about the ongoing probe, senior police inspector Rajaram Whanmane said, “Two of our teams immediately set out to find the parents of the baby girl. They visited every slum and housing societies and two weeks ago we came to know about a couple, who had recently separated from their family after they lost a baby girl. Our team questioned the neighbours and family members, after which we came to know about the real story.”

Sapna Sahu was pregnant with her second child and her husband Jagannath was desperately hoping for a son to be born. He threatened Sapna that if she did not give birth to a son, she would have to murder her own daughter. On the other hand, Jagannath’s mother and brother did not support his views and favoured Sapna.

When she gave birth to a girl, Jagannath was disappointed but Sapna refused to kill her daughter. One night, Sapna went to sleep with her baby girl beside her but when she woke up a few hours later, she found that her daughter was missing.

Next morning, Sapna came to know that her husband left the baby somewhere to die. After Jagannath’s mother learned of this, she threw him out of the house. And as he was leaving, Sapna decided to follow her husband out of the house.

Senior inspector Whanmane said, “ On getting to know where the couple were put up in Kalyan, our teams arrested the couple. Jagannath accepted his crime. We arrested his wife as well for supporting him and as she did not even try to look for the baby girl.”