Not knowing how to cremate the body, couple abandons 2-yr-old child in storm water drain

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: In a heart wrenching incident, Doddaballapur Town Police found the body of a two-year-old girl lying near a storm water drain in Bashettihalli Industrial area on the Yelahanka-Hindupur Road.

The body was first discovered on Monday by few locals who later alerted the jurisdictional police. According to the locals, the body was placed on a stone slab and was wrapped in a red saree.

Speaking to News Trail, an officer from the Bengaluru Rural Doddaballapur Town Police Station, Munikrishna, said no injury marks were found on the body of the child during the inspection.

He said they checked if any missing complaint had been registered across the police stations, while a team was also formed to trace the parents.

Uncertain of the identities of the parents, the police were confused whether to cremate the body or to bury it.

The industrial area had a considerable number of residents, who have migrated from North Indian states in search of labour in the past several years. Inspecting the body, the police found an amulet tied on the child's wrist and suspected that its parents might hail from North India.

The police team conducted an inquiry around Bashettihalli and on Wednesday found that the child belonged to a couple working as construction labourers in Veerapura village, two kilometers away from Bashettihalli.

The parents were identified as Pramesh and Vibha Kumari, hailing from Bihar.

It was revealed that the child, Ruchi Kumari, had died of illness and the couple, not knowing how to cremate it, left her body at the drain.