A week on, no claimants for baby’s body

No external injury marks on 6 month old's girl; CST GRP officials puzzled about how she was found dead on tracks

A week on, no claimants for baby's body

No external injury marks on 6 month old's girl; CST GRP officials puzzled about how she was found dead on tracks

Over a week after a 6 month-old baby girl was found dead on the railway tracks of platform number 2 near Masjid Bunder Railway station on the harbour line, no one has come forward to claim the body. This, despite General Railway Police (GRP) authorities from Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST) displaying her picture at police stations across the city.

On February 26, at 8 am, passengers saw a small baby near the Masjid Bunger station railway track. They informed the stationmaster, who called the CST GRP. Inspector Pradip Shinde said, "When we reached the spot, it looked like she was sleeping. But when we took her in our arms and checked, we found she was dead."

The girl was dressed in a pink frock and seemed to belong to a well-to-do family. "It looked like she had been given a bath that morning and she also had a kaajal ka teeka (custom of putting kaajal on babies' faces to ward off evil) on her head," said a GRP official, on condition of anonymity. Police are now using this impression to rule out the theory that she was abandoned for being a girl child.

Since then, there have been no clues about her identity or whereabouts. The post mortem, conducted at St George Hospital, revealed that the cause of death was an internal head injury.

"We have kept the DNA sample for future enquiry," said Shinde. With no external signs of injury or stress, neither foul play nor theft is suspected. "We are wondering how she got there, because the spot where we found the body does not have easy access by foot," said the official.

Ashok Jadhav, Senior Inspector (GRP), CST, said, "We are trying to locate her parents or relatives. A team is working on it. It's a very sensitive case and I am sure we will get details in a few days. But until now, no one has come forward to claim the baby."