(Top) Japa Selma who delivered the stillborn baby and (below) the District Headquarters Hospital of Sonepur. Telegraph pictures

Sonepur, Dec. 31: The District Headquarter Hospital in Sonepur witnessed a controversy over a newborn baby.

While the parents allege that the newborn baby, who was declared dead by the doctor, was later found abandoned outside the hospital and was alive, the doctor, who had conducted the delivery, on the other hand says it was not the same baby.

Hospital sources said that last evening Akshaya Selma of Alikud village in neighbouring Boudh district had admitted his wife Japa at the District Headquarters Hospital, as they were expecting delivery of their child.

In the wee hours today, Japa delivered a stillborn male baby. Dr. Prakash Dansena, the obstetrician and gynaecologist of the hospital had conducted the delivery.

However, in the morning at about 8.30am Ekka Naik of Khadalpada locality found a new born baby near a pond and admitted the baby in the district headquarters hospital.

After the baby was admitted in the hospital, the family members claimed that it was their baby and was declared dead by the doctor.

Dr Tribikram Pandia who admitted the baby lodged a police complaint as a case of abandoned child as the child was found near a pond.

Bhaja Selma, a relative of Japa said that the doctor who did the delivery wrongly told them that a dead baby was born.

“This baby is ours. The doctor on duty had wrongly told us that a dead baby was born and we had dumped the baby”, Bhaja said.

Hundred of people thronged the hospital as the news spread length and breadth of the town. However, no untoward incidents were reported.

Additional district medical officer (ADMO) of Sonepur, Dr. Pradeep Kumar Guru admitted that an abandoned newborn baby had been admitted in the hospital.

“As far as the claim of the family of Japa goes that the baby belongs to them, I have not received any formal claim from their family. The matter will be looked into if I receive any such claim. The baby is premature weighing only about 700 gms and has been kept in the intensive care unit”, the ADMO said.

Dr Prakash Dansena, the gynaecologist of the hospital who conducted the delivery said that the baby was not the one he had delivered in the morning.

“It is not the same baby. The baby was born dead and I had conducted the delivery”, he said.