Woman feels her baby is alive, to continue fight

BENGALURU: A 36-year-old woman is in search of her newborn baby girl who went missing four days after birth in 2016. She firmly believes that her baby is still alive.On November 9, 2016, Shankramma gave birth to a girl child in Kathare Nursing Home and Muti-speciality Hospital in Bagalkot. On November 14, when she was discharged, the hospital authorities not only refused to give her baby to her but even refrained from giving any reasons. When she approached the local police to file a complaint, they refused to take up the case. She approached the SP of Bagalkot, who directed his officials to file a case. According to Shankramma, who is illiterate, the police forcibly made her to undersign on a paper where it was mentioned that the child had died. 

Shankramma did not give up. She took the case up to the High Court, Dharwad bench, which ordered the SP to probe the matter again. The investigation report submitted to the court revealed shocking details.  The people said to have disposed the body gave contradictory statements which were revealed during investigations. Also, suspicions grew when S Angadi and Dr S V Panchamukhi, project co-ordinators at Bio Medical Waste Treatment facility, Bagalkot, said no body of a baby was burnt in the unit.    

Also, another point that raised suspicions was that the death and birth certificates of the child were registered with the local authority on the same day — July 27, 2017, which was two days after filing the writ petition. It showed that the hospital took eight months to report it to the local authority. With all this, the High Court bench suspected that the child was still alive, passed on to a third party by the accused. Shankramma suspects that her child has been trafficked, but that she would fight for justice, till the end.