Jaigaon/Alipurduar, April 13: People rescued a newborn found half-buried but alive in a bamboo grove near the Madarihat gram panchayat office this afternoon. In another incident, police yesterday exhumed the body of an 18-month-old girl at Deogaon in Alipurduar.

According to Madarihat police, two men were attracted by the cries of the baby after they had gone to the grove to relieve themselves. While the major portion the infant’s body was buried, her face was smeared with cow dung.

Shipra Ghosh, an anganwadi worker who lives nearby, took the girl to her house and washed her. The baby was then taken to the Madarihat hospital and later to Birpara hospital where doctor Subrata Basu said the girl was suffering from chest infection.

Shipra has said she is ready to adopt the baby once she is discharged from the hospital. However, the police said the baby could be handed over to the anganwadi worker only with court permission. An enquiry has already started to find her parents.

In the Deogaon incident, the police arrested the girl’s grandmother Indira and are on the lookout for her father and grandfather for burying the body clandestinely.

The mother, Seema Das said ever since she gave birth to a girl, her husband, Biswajit Dey, and in-laws had been torturing her.

On April 9, Seema, who was in the kitchen, heard her daughter Mousumi crying and rushed to her. The girl was frothing at the mouth and Biswajit, along with his parents, Shambhu and Indira, were present there. They told Seema that the girl was ill and they were taking her to Birpara hospital.

After a few hours, Sambhu and Indira returned but Biswajit did not. When Seema repeatedly asked her in-laws about her husband and daughter, she was told that both would come back soon. Seema contacted her father Sunil Das the next day and he started a search for the baby. Sunil went to the Birpara hospital, checked the register and found that the baby had not been admitted there.

During interrogation, Indira told the police that the girl had died on way to the hospital and they had buried the body in a bamboo grove, 500 meters from the house. The body has been sent to North Bengal Medical College and Hospital for post-mortem. The police today produced Indira in court.

Seema suspects that the husband and his parents had poisoned her daughter.