14-yr-old teen, raped by cousin, booked along with mother for abandoning baby

The girl’s mother and a nurse who helped deliver the baby on Tuesday and later allegedly left the newborn near the rail tracks have been arrested under Section 93 (abandonment of the child) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, said deputy commissioner of police (DCP) Bhopal Zone 1, Priyanka Shukla said.

Shukla added that a case was registered against the 17-year-old boy under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (Pocso) Act for rape.

The girl and her cousin, also a minor, have been taken into custody and are being counselled, she added.

The newborn was found lying in a sack near the tracks in the city’s Aishbagh area on Wednesday. When investigators scanned footage from CCTV cameras in the vicinity, they spotted a woman who was believed to have left the sack. She was identified as a nurse Asma Firdaus Khan.

The nurse told investigators that she was hired to help deliver a baby by a Class 8 student who had been raped by her cousin.

Once the girl’s mother – a single mother after her husband abandoned them 10 years ago – learnt of her daughter’s pregnancy, she stopped her from going to school or stepping out of the house. “The mother made arrangements for the delivery of the child at home and gave ₹60,000 to the nurse. After the child was born on Tuesday, the nurse abandoned her,” a police officer said.

The officer said it appeared that a doctor is also learnt to have guided the nurse on the steps to deliver the baby.