Woman delivers in hospital toilet, baby dies

A newborn baby died minutes after its mother delivered inside a toilet of an orthopaedic hospital near Ellis bridge and disappeared. The incident took place around 3 pm on Wednesday at Dr Manoj Joshi Orthopaedic Hospital in Pritamnagar.

According to police, two women — one of them pregnant — and three men brought a third woman to the hospital in the afternoon. She was allegedly suffering from back pain and wanted to consult a doctor. Meanwhile, the pregnant woman went to a toilet in the hospital. When she took too long inside the toilet, one of the cleaning staff knocked on the door. When she finally emerged from the toilet, she was covered in blood and the floor of the toilet too was all bloody. When the cleaning staff prodded her, she said she was menstruating. Soon, a dispute broke out between the woman and the staff, including nurses, about cleaning the toilet.

The three men, too, joined the fight. They soon left along with the woman in an autorickshaw. "When one of the cleaning staff went inside the toilet to clean it, she found a newborn baby there and immediately informed the doctor in charge," said A S Patel, inspector of Ellis bridge police station.

Though they rushed the baby to VS Hospital, it died on the way, Patel said.

The Ellis bridge police have registered a case of murder against five suspects.

According to police, the hospital's CCTV was on view mode. There was no provision to record the footage, making it difficult to identify the suspects.