In a startling incident, body of a lifeless premature baby was found floating in Perandoor canal near Elamakkara in Kochi on Sunday. The body had been placed in a bucket that was found floating in the canal.
A group of children who had been playing near the canal in Elamakkara on Sunday evening saw the bucket and took it out of the water without knowing what was inside. The residents in the area who were informed about the bucket by the children alerted the police about this.
According to the Elamakkara police, on primary analysis, it is suspected that the body could that be of a still born baby or an aborted fetus (unborn baby). “We cannot estimate how many months old the baby was, but there were fully formed hands and legs and the body was attached to an umbilical cord,” said the official.
Meanwhile, experts opine that the body could have been that of a still born child. “Usually, if a fetus is aborted, then that is considered as biomedical waste and the body will be disposed of by the hospitals. But in still born babies' cases, bodies are usually handed over to parent,” Dr Narayanan, part of Indian Academy of Pediatrics.
The police also suspect that the body was disposed recently or on the same day as it was not decomposed. “Moreover, we found a sticker in the body on which it was written ‘31.01.2020’. We think that perhaps the baby was delivered on this date,” the police official told TNM.
Police have started an inquiry based on the deliveries which happened on this date at hospitals in the city. A case of unnatural death has also been registered.
The body has presently been kept at the mortuary of Ernakulam General Hospital and will undergo postmortem on Monday.