Baby Starved as Mother Lay Dead, No One Helped Fearing COVID

Fearing COVID, no one reached out to a baby who starved for two days, as mother lay dead.

Baby. (File Photo: IANS)

(File Photo: IANS)

In a tragic incident, an infant was found next to the body of his mother inside their home, near Pune. It was also found that the baby had been there without food or water ever since his mother died, as per a report by NDTV.

Even more chilling is the fact that no one reached out to the family fearing COVID. A stench forced the landlord to call the police to the house located in Pimpri Chinchwad.

Landlord Forced To Call the Police

On Monday, 26 April, the police broke into the house and found the woman's body and the infant next to her. The woman was suspected to have died on Saturday, 24 April, which means the 18-month-old had been without food or water all that time.

Though neighbours shrank from even holding the baby, police constables Sushila Gabhale and Rekha Waze took charge and fed him.

“I also have two children, one eight year old and one six year old. The baby felt like my own, he drank milk very quickly as he was very hungry.”

Sushila Gabhale

Her colleague Rekha said the child was miraculously fine, except for fever.

“The child had a little fever when we showed him to the doctor. He told us to feed him well, the rest is fine. After feeding the baby biscuit with water, we took the child to the government hospital for a COVID test.”

Sushila Gabhale

Baby Tested Negative For COVID-19

The baby's COVID test is negative and he was shifted to a government creche.

His mother's autopsy is yet to reveal how she died and it is not known whether she had COVID.

“The woman’s husband had reportedly gone to Uttar Pradesh for work. We are waiting for him to return.”

Prakash Jadhav, Police Inspector (Crime)

Maharashtra on Thursday, 29 April, reported 66,159 COVID cases and 771 deaths in 24 hours. Pimpri Chinchwad has recorded over 2,400 cases in a day.

(With Inputs From NDTV)