Newborn left half buried for birds to feed on

Lovleen Bains

Doraha, October 16

In what can be termed as an utterly inhuman act, a newborn baby girl was left half buried near Sirhind Canal here for vultures and crows to feed on. The infant today died at Civil Hospital, Ludhiana, where she was admitted by the Doraha police yesterday.

The child was said to have died of infection caused by bird bites.

Ranjodh Singh, a resident of Doraha, noticed the child crying. He picked her up and informed the Doraha police.

The investigating officer, ASI Kuldip Singh, told this correspondent that the newborn baby girl was running high fever when she was picked up from the spot yesterday. “She was partly buried and being attacked by crows and vultures on the feet. She today died of infection at the Civil Hospital. The child had been doing fine since yesterday but maybe she was not able to fight infection which had spread all over her body,” said the ASI.

“We thanked the passerby as he had done a real noble deed by saving an infant being attacked by vultures and crows. Having admitted her to the hospital in time, we were quite hopeful of her recovery. Her treatment started there and then. We had deployed police personnel in the hospital to take care of the baby and also visited her at regular intervals. Her parents have not been traced yet. The news of her death has really pained us as she was doing well yesterday,” said the ASI.

“ A case under section 317 of the IPC has been registered against unknown persons. We are trying to collect information from passersby to get some clue to the child’s parents,” he said.