A newborn boy , suspected to be about five days old, was found abandoned in a Thane-bound local train on Tuesday night. The Chinchpokli wing of the Government Railway Police (GRP) rescued the infant and sent him to Sion hospital.   Around eight women had boarded the middle second class women’s compartment at Byculla station which was empty. There, they noticed a plastic bag on a seat. Alarmed to see it moving, some of them ran to pull the emergency chain. Two others peered into the bag and found the baby, swaddled in a cloth, lying there.

The train left the station at around 8.08pm, but no constable was deployed for patrolling duty in the compartment at the time, which GRP sources said was because of a shortage of staff.

“One of the commuters immediately informed the control room. As soon as the train pulled into Chinchpokli station, an on-duty GRP constable rushed into the coach and picked up the baby. He was found to be in good health and sent to the hospital,” said an officer of Dadar GRP.

The police said the coach was empty till it reached Byculla, so it likely that the person who left the child there might have got in at CST and alighted at Masjid station. Officials are now scanning the CCTV footage at CST and Masjid stations to identify the accused.

A case has been registered against an unknown person under Section 317 (exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years by parent or person having care of it) of the IPC.