The latest in a series of gory incidents involving newborns, residents at the Vajpayee Nagar shanty under Shahjahanabad police precincts found the severed head of a neonate after dogs had gorged on its torso.
Police rushed to the spot upon receiving information and kept the remains of the tiny corpse at the Hamidia Hospital mortuary, where a post-mortem was later carried out.
Shahjahanabad police station in charge, UPS Chauhan, said information regarding the body was received from residents in the area, who had said that dogs were tearing the corpse apart in the bushes near the multi-storey building.
Chauhan confirmed that the torso of the newborn had been eaten by stray mongrels, making it difficult to ascertain if the baby was male or female. The gender would only become clear after the results of the post-mortem are declared.He said that police investigations are focusing on people in the vicinity, and hospital records are being checked to ascertain all recent births in the area. Dig squads have also been pressed into service to see if the dogs had brought the baby here from elsewhere.
The incident comes close on the heels of reports of several similar incidents from various parts of the state capital. Recently, dogs had mutilated a newborn in the Piplani area of the state capital. The child had died.
Less than two months ago, a grandmother had colluded with a nurse to prematurely deliver a baby and dump it on a busy roadside in the Bagh Umrao Dulha area of the city.
Social stigma surrounding unwed motherhood and gender bias against the girl child often results in people discarding newborns at secluded spots and bushes in the state capital. Hundreds of such cases are reported in Madhya Pradesh each year.
