A policeman with the abandoned baby girl. Picture by Surajit Roy

Malda, March 26: A mother of three girls abandoned her new-born at the Malda district hospital this morning.

Kohinoor Bibi came to the hospital around seven in the morning to see her new-born grandson. A woman in her 30s came forward with a baby girl and requested Kohinoor to take care of the child for sometime. The woman said she would go to the gate to receive her visiting daughter.

“I readily agreed. But when the woman did not come back to collect the baby even two-and-a-half hours later, I became suspicious and reported the matter to the police outpost in the hospital,” said Kohinoor.

As the news spread, people thronged the police outpost to see the fair-complexioned girl. Around 1pm, the baby was shifted to the maternity ward where she has been breast-fed by a lactating mother in the hospital.

The superintendent of the hospital, Animesh Roy, said 13 women, who had delivered babies, were released this morning. Five of them had given birth to baby girls. The police have been informed to establish the identity of the mother.

The woman had earlier told other patients that she has two daughters. “When the third child she delivered on Monday turned out to be a girl, she abandoned the baby and fled,” one of them said.

The police are trying to ascertain the mother of the abandoned girl out of the five women who were discharged from the hospital in the morning. “We have collected addresses from the hospital register and will visit all the five women’s houses,” said Prasad Pradhan, the inspector-in-charge of the Englishbazar police station. “We are also investigating whether the addresses are correct,” he added.