A new-born baby who was flushed down the toilet of a train, was recovered alive by the cleaning staff in Indian city of Amritsar on Saturday.
The cleaning staff entered the toilet of Howrah Express ’ AC compartment when the train had stopped for cleaning. They found one end of a stole lying outside the toilet and when they pulled it, they found the other end tied around the neck of a baby, prompting suspicion of a possible strangulation effort before flushing him down the toilet. The staff rushed the baby to a nearby hospital after realising he was alive.
“Around 2:30 pm, I got a call from one of our sweepers, who told me that he had found a dead body of a child from the train and I immediately rushed towards the train. A part of a dupatta (stole) was lying out of the toilet. When we pulled out the dupatta, the baby, around whose neck it was tied, came out. We were astonished at seeing that the baby was alive,” Sabhi, who oversees the cleaning, told local daily, the Hindustan Times.
The incident was investigated by the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Amritsar police who were also examining the station’s CCTV footage to identify the culprits responsible for it.
Dr. Sandeep, a doctor at the civil hospital where the child is being treated, said the boy was out of danger.
“When the baby was admitted his body was shivering due to cold. We, immediately, placed him in a heater to warm him. Four doctors, specialized in child care, have been working to cure the baby, who is now out of danger. It seems the new born baby is just a day old,” he said.
Police said the boy, was lucky to have survived after being dumped “so mercilessly and left in the winter cold in the toilet flush.”
“The train reached at Amritsar railway station at around 10:30 am and then went to the washing platform. It seems the boy remained in the toilet for more than four hours— that too in severe cold weather. His lucky survival has left us stunned,” Balbir Singh , Station house officer (SHO) of Amritsar GRP said.
A case of “exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years, by parent or person having care of it ” was filed against unidentified persons.
In a similar incident in 2014, a newborn baby survived after his mother flushed him down a toilet in Shaanxi Province of China. The baby survived with small scratches and the mother was charged with child abuse and neglect.
“The child survived the ordeal surprisingly unscathed. I can’t think of any similar case where a child survived being effectively flushed down the toilet,” Dr. Li Zhiping said, the Daily Mail reported