TEAM HERALD

teamherald@herald-goa.com

PANJIM: The mother who had abandoned her newborn at the Goa Medical College and Hospital, Bambolim, had given a wrong home address during admission to the hospital for her delivery, apparently with a premeditated intention to abandon the baby. 

The Agassaim police have initiated inquiry to find out the exact address of accused Ratna Devi. 

“She gave a false address to the GMC. There are no proper details of the mother with the hospital authorities,” DySP Umesh Gaonkar told Herald. 

The mother had mentioned her home address as Verna. 

The 37-day-old boy was admitted at the gynecology ward on May 23 for treatment soon after his birth but the doctors found that the mother had disappeared from the hospital and abandoned the baby in the ward. 

After the incident came to light, the police discovered that the address mentioned in the hospital’s admission register was fake. 

A preliminary inquiry has also revealed that during the newborn’s treatment, the woman had disappeared on two occasions. 

The woman reportedly belongs to the migrant labour-class. The absence of correct and complete details of the mother has put the police in a fix.

While the mother’s whereabouts are being traced, the baby has been lodged in the care and protection at Apna Ghar. 

Atleast three cases of babies being abandoned have been reported this year. 

Earlier in March, the police had registered a case against a Karnataka-based couple Guruprasad Pivankar and his wife Shradda for abandoning a two-day old baby boy in the GMC’s ward number 131. 

The baby died while being treated at GMC. 

They had denied the charge after being tracked by the police. 

In another case at Verna, in January, another male child was found wrapped in a blanket behind the local police station. 

The baby was lodged in Apna Ghar and the parents who abandoned the baby are yet to be traced.