Maid abandons newborn near dustbin, held

TNN, Aug 12, 2010, 11.19pm ISTPUNE: A maidservant facing financial hardships abandoned her newborn child near a dustbin at Mohammedwadi around 3 am on Thursday. However, the child was rescued by some alert women residents of the area, who also questioned the maidservant and finally handed her over to the police.

 

The woman, Vandana Kamble (24) of Krishnanagar, has a three-year-old son too. After parting ways with her husband around four years back, she was living with a plumber, Ganesh Kochpote (27).

 

Senior police inspector Prasad Hasabnis of the Kondhwa police station told TOI that under interrogation, Vandana confessed that she had delivered the baby boy at her residence on Wednesday and that she had abandoned him at the dustbin the very next day as she felt she was too impoverished to raise him.

 

Vandana has been charged under section 318 of the Indian Penal Code.

 

Similar cases of women abandoning their newborn babies have been reported in the past in the city but this is for the first time that a mother has been caught and handed over to the police.

 

Asma Shaikh, one of the woman who helped in rescuing the child, told TOI that people had started gathering near the dustbin after they heard the child crying at around 5.30 am. The child was wrapped in a saree.

 

Shaikh said a group of women picked up the child and called up the police control room at telephone number 100. The police took the child into their custody and requested the residents to find out if any pregnant woman had delivered a baby.

 

Another resident, Sujata Kasbe, said, "We suspected Vandana as she was the only woman in the area who was pregnant. Vandana denied abandoning the child but could not tell us what had become of her pregnancy."

 

Another woman, Maya Nalawade, said, "We asked Vandana to accompany us for a medical check-up. She was reluctant but eventually agreed to see a doctor. While we were going to the nearby hospital, she admitted to having abandoned the child."