Kerala: Police identify biological mother of baby sold at Thycaud Women and Child Hospital

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nearly a month after the alleged sale of a three-day old baby born at the Thycaud Women and Child Hospital, police have identified the biological mother of the baby who sold the newborn to a Karamana-based woman. The police have located her house at Poovar.
However, the Poovar-based woman was not at home when police reached there to take her into custody and her mother told police that she was staying away from the home for the last couple of weeks.
“She might have escaped after coming to know through the media that police were searching her. We have sent a team of police to Poovar to trace her as we believe that she must be in the area,” said the police.
The police received clues about the biological mother from her friend, who provided her a SIM to use.
“It was with this SIM that the biological mother contacted Lali, the woman who bought the baby. When we took the details of the SIM card, we found that it belonged to a Pozhiyoor resident Prabhakaran. However, Prabhakaran was not at home when we reached his house and his wife informed us that he has been staying away from home for the past three years,” said police.
The police found that Prabhakaran works with a lawyer at Ambalathara and later he was questioned. From Prabhakaran, police got the details of the biological mother as he had visited her house before. The police also said that the biological mother contacted Lali from another number as well.
“The biological mother used to sell clothes and she got acquainted with Lali when she reached her house to sell clothes. Lali , who was childless, was in dire need of a baby and the biological woman was finding it difficult to find expenses for her delivery. Lali’s offer of buying the baby for Rs 3 lakh was then accepted by the woman,” police said.
For that Lali sold gold ornaments and also took a loan from Kudumbashree. As planned, the biological mother produced the identity card of Lali at Thycaud hospital to avoid any suspicion later. The police also said that the woman was separated from her husband and was living with her partner.
The police also got a clear image of the woman from the CCTV visuals collected from the hospital.
“We may go to the extent of publishing her images through the media to trace her if we fail to find her. As per an apex court direction, there are certain restrictions in doing so now. But we can go for it at a later stage in the legal line,” police said.
The baby girl was born at the hospital on April 7 and the mother and the child were discharged on April 10. The sale of the baby took place on April 11 and the child line was alerted by some people about the sale on April 19.
A case was registered later with the consent of the court under sections 75, 80 and 81 of Juvenile Justice Act.
Even though police questioned the woman who bought the baby, she was not aware of the details of the biological mother and that was when the police decided to check the CCTV visuals from the hospital to identify her.