The dead body of a newborn girl was found in a garbage dump in a vacant plot behind Swarn Palace in Sherpur area on Wednesday.
The complainant, Suresh Kumar of Muslim Colony of Sherpur Kalan, came upon the dead newborn while he was inspecting the plot and raised the alarm.
Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Mewa Ram, who is investigating the case, said the girl had died two hours before her body was found. The body has been sent to the civil hospital for postmortem.
“The body was not wrapped in cloth. The newborn child was abandoned soon after birth and may have died due to starvation or due to the rain. It is possible that an unwed mother attempted to abort the child to escape social stigma, or it may be a case of female foeticide. We are checking records at hospitals, nursing homes and with midwives to identify the newborn child’s mother,” he said.
A case under Section 316 (causing death of an unborn child by act amounting to culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at the Moti Nagar Police Station.