Woman dumps baby in dustbin

MUMBAI: A 41-year-old woman has been booked for abandoning her child in a bathroom dustbin after giving birth in a five-star hotel in Mumbai on Monday. The child has been admitted at the NICU of Nair hospital and is currently out of danger.

The accused, a resident of Goregaon (East), claimed before the police that she allegedly abandoned the newborn over some personal dispute with her husband.

The NM Joshi Marg police said that they received a call at around 10.40 am on Monday from the main control room regarding some help required at a Central Mumbai hotel. Upon reaching there, the police were informed that a housekeeping staff found a newborn covered in blood-soaked tissues, abandoned in the dustbin of one of the hotel toilets.

The child was immediately rushed to the Nair hospital by the police and the doctors admitted him in the NICU. The doctor told the police that the child was born between 8am10am the same day. The baby boy weighs around 2.8 kg and is stable now, the police said. Upon checking the CCTV footage, the police spotted a pregnant woman. On making inquiries with the hotel administration, the police learnt that the woman, an employee of an event management company, had come to the hotel to check out the hall for an event scheduled the next day.

Police sources said that the woman in a preliminary inquiry has said that she came to the hotel for some work, but due to sudden labour, she delivered the child in the toilet. She had a personal dispute with her husband and hence she abandoned the child there.

The police have booked the woman under sections 317 (father or mother of a child under the age of twelve years, or having the care of such child, shall expose or leave such child in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning such child) of Indian Penal Code and is expected to talk to her.