A one-day-old baby boy who was rescued after being found abandoned in a pile of dry leaves near a house in Kerala’s Kollam district passed away hours later on Tuesday night. Though the police have registered a case, they are yet to identify who abandoned the baby. It was early on Tuesday that a family at Nadakkal near Kalluvathukkal in Kollam discovered the child abandoned inside a heap of dry leaves near the compound of their house. The residents of the house came to know about the presence of the child after they heard its cries. According to reports, even the umbilical cord of the baby was intact when it was found.

Following this, the family informed the incident to police officials who rushed the infant to Parippally Medical College. From there, the baby was taken to SAT Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram for advanced care, but succumbed on Tuesday night. The baby weighed three kg. Police had earlier informed that the Child Welfare Committee will be taking care of the baby.

After the infant passed away, Paripally police booked a case under culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other charges of the Juvenile Justice Act, an official told TNM. The official added that they were ascertaining the identity of the people who abandoned the baby. “We are still probing,” he said.

Last April, a similar incident happened in the same district, where a newborn was found abandoned in the verandah of a house. CCTV footage from the region had shown that it was a man who abandoned the baby girl. A few months prior to this, another newborn was found abandoned near a chapel at Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram. In October last year, a baby girl was found abandoned at the door steps of Islahiya Masjid in Thiruvannur in Kozhikode, along with a note stating that they are giving back the infant to god.