If destiny’s child had a name, it would surely have been Nidhi, the little “treasure” abandoned by her parents at the neonatal intensive care unit of a private hospital in Kochi in February when she was just 23 days old.
Kerala police have traced the parents of Nidhi, born premature and abandoned by a Jharkhand couple, fearing that she might not make it as she weighed less than a
kilogram.
Mangleswar Oraon and his wife Ranjitha have now been traced to Lohardaga in Jharkhand, thanks to a Kerala sub-inspector’s alertness and a serendipitous turn of events that saw a team of cops from the eastern state visit Kochi to attend the National Police Meet (NPM) last weekend.
The police investigation led by P.P. Reji, a sub-inspector with the North police station in Ernakulam, is no less than a film script. Ever since Nidhi was abandoned, the police have been looking for her parents. Just when the police thought they had hit a dead end, Reji had a brainwave.
He figured that players from the Jharkhand police might be participating in the badminton and tennis championships at the NPM being held at the Kadavanthra Indoor Stadium nearby. Reji was right.
On meeting the Jharkhand police team, Reji showed them documents related to Nidh and a copy of the Aadhaar card of the elusive couple.
As luck would have it, the couple belonged to the same village as one of the Jharkhand police officers. From there, the search picked up momentum.
A beaming Reji told The Telegraph that he understood why Mangleswar and Ranjitha had abandoned the girl, who is now 38 weeks old.
“Mangleshwar had just ₹23,000 on him when the bill at a private hospital in Kochi touched ₹2 lakh. Being a premature baby, Nidhi’s vital organs such as kidneys, liver and brain were not developed. The chances of her survival were bleak. I understand why they decided to abandon the baby and run away to their state.
“Nidhi is a fighter. The baby now weighs 3kg and the nuns who are looking after her at Shisu Bhavan have been eagerly sharing her day-to-day developments with us. I spoke to Mangleswar, in his late 30s, on a video call. He was sitting in a barren piece of land. Maybe he wanted to stay discreet so that he wouldn’t give away his location,” Reji said.
The police inspector showed the video of little Nidhi to Mangleswar, who couldn’t believe that his daughter was alive.
Jijin Joseph, the station house officer of North police station, told this newspaper that the Jharkhand couple were expected to decide on their return to Kochi in the next two to three days.
Nidhi is in the custody of the Child Protection Committee, Ernakulam, where she is being taken care of by nuns at Shisu Bhavan.
K.S. Sini, the child protection officer of Ernakulam, said they were eagerly waiting for the arrival of Nidhi’s parents to witness the reunion of the family.
But Reji and his team have lots of official procedures to complete, which include filing the investigation report before the court and avoiding legal hassles so that the couple can get the custody of the child easily.
The Jharkhand couple were working as labourers at a fishing farm in Kottayam district when the incident happened. When the pregnancy date neared, the couple decided to return to their state. But Ranjitha went into labour during the train journey, which led them to seek medical attention. She was immediately taken to a nearby hospital, where she delivered Nidhi.
Kerala health minister Veena George named her Nidhi, meaning treasure. When the news on Nidhi broke, George urged Shahirsha, the superintendent of the Government General Hospital in Ernakulam, to ensure expert medical care for the infant.
