NUAPADA: The body of a newborn baby was recovered from the bag of his parents at a transit centre for migrant workers in Khariar Road area here on Thursday.
The baby’s parents, Tolaram Pandey (23) and Chaturbai (20), from Gadfuljhar under Basna gram panchayat in Mahasamand, Chhattisgarh, were working at a brick kiln in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh since December last year. Chaturbai was around three months pregnant back then.
After the lockdown was enforced, the couple were stuck at Gorakhpur. They subsequently registered themselves to return to their village via Nuapada recently. While they had a train to catch on June 15, Chaturbai delivered a baby boy on June 14 night at a hospital in Gorakhpur. The couple boarded the train the next morning. Late at night, they noticed that the baby had stopped crying and found he had probably died of suffocation in the overcrowded train.
Apprehending that other passengers might force them out of the train for carrying the dead baby, the couple put it in one of their bags. They reached Khariar Road the same day and were shifted to a transit centre at National College. On the evening of June 16, the body was found by someone at the centre and police were informed.
Jonk police seized the body and interrogated the couple. CDMO Kalicharan behera said the autopsy of the baby was conducted on Wednesday morning and the couple were sent to their village in Chhattisgarh along with the body. Once received, the autopsy report will be handed over to the police for further investigation.