Infant, flushed down train toilet, dies at Amritsar hospital

Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, December 24

The infant, who was flushed down train toilet, died here on Monday night. Government Medical College and Hospital Associate Professor Dr Narinder Singh, who has been tending to the male child, said, "The boy died due to shock and haemorrhage. Despite best efforts by six-member team, he could not be resuscitated."

GRP Police station, Amritsar, SHO Balbir Singh Ghuman said, "DNA sample of the baby has been preserved for future investigation. After conducting post mortem, the body has been kept at mortuary for 72 hours."

The GRP had registered a case under Section 317 of the IPC, which deals with the abandonment of children under 12 years of age by parents and guardians, against unidentified persons. Now, Section 318 of the IPC has also been incorporated in the same FIR for "deserting child under 12 years of age to die".

The infant was discovered in the lavatory hole of the AC-3 rake of Howrah Express train (3006) at washing apron on Saturday.

Safai Karamchari Vishal was the first to notice him after finding the drain pipe choked. Subsequently, he noticed a newborn stuck in it.

Sources said the baby was most probably delivered in the train itself as the placenta was attached to body.

Vishal and his colleague Akashdeep informed supervisor Ajay Singh and contrator Gurdev Singh Sabhi. 

Sabhi said couple of bodies of newborn and prematurely born babies were found in toilets of some trains sometime back. So they felt it was the same case. However, to their utter surprise the infant was found alive.