Representative image showing a baby's foot.
Credit: Pixabay Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: A 23-year old unwed woman delivered a child in the washroom of her flat at Kochi in Kerala and threw the body like a garbage pack to the street from the fifth-floor.
Police tracked the culprit with the help of the barcode on an online delivery pack used to pack the newborn.
The gruesome incident took place by around 8 am at Panampilly Nagar, a known residential area in the city. CCTV footage of the baby, wrapped like garbage, being thrown from the flat has come out.
Kochi city police commissioner S Syamsundar told the media that the woman was suspected to be a rape victim. She was staying with her parents at the flat over the last many years. The girl stated that she delivered in the washroom of her bedroom by around 5 am and by 8 am she threw the newborn outside by wrapping it owing to anxiety. There was blood stain in the washroom.
Whether it was a stillborn baby or not would be known only from the postmortem examination report. Parents of the girl said that they were unaware of their daughter's pregnancy, said the commissioner.
Some motorists who tried to remove the pack that fell in the middle of the road had found the body. The woman was suspected to have targeted a vacant plot on the other side of the road.
There were unconfirmed reports that a youth who befriended her through social media was suspected to have sexually abused her by promising to marry.
The woman was later shifted to hospital as she was weak owing to the delivery. The police registered separate cases in connection with the newborn's death and the rape allegations of the woman.