Authorities know the names of the mothers of nine out of ten babies who perished in fire at a state-run hospital in Maharashtra's Bhandara district on early Saturday morning. One name is missing, as the child had been abandoned at birth.
The new-born baby, a boy, had been found in the remote village of Kesalwada in Lakhanitehsil last week, a district official said. Discovery of an abandoned child also made headlines in local newspapers. Police registered a case against its unidentified parents and admitted it to local rural hospital. As his condition was critical, he was shifted to Special Newborn Care Unit of Bhandara district hospital, the official said.
When a fire broke out in the hospital in the early hours of Saturday, the staff succeeded in rescuing seven out of 17 babies from the Newborn Care Unit. The boy was not among the lucky ones.