Woman claims own infant was abandoned by stranger, motive remains a mystery

Bhopal: A puzzling case in Betul district left police and child welfare authorities searching for answers after a 26-year-old woman allegedly tried to pass off her own one-and-a-half-month-old daughter as an abandoned child.

The woman arrived at Betul Kotwali police station on Saturday carrying the infant and claimed that an unidentified woman had handed over the baby to her at a bus stand before disappearing. While the case initially appeared to involve an abandoned child, investigators grew suspicious after noticing inconsistencies in her account.

Police launched an inquiry and coordinated with the Child Welfare Committee (CWC), following which the infant was temporarily sent to a child care institution. During the investigation, officials contacted the woman’s family members, who revealed that the child was in fact her own daughter. Her husband told police that she left home saying she was attending a wedding function.

Authorities said the woman was unable to provide a convincing explanation for her actions. She was also taken to a One Stop Centre during the proceedings, where her health deteriorated and she had to be shifted to a district hospital.

On Sunday, after counselling and verification, the infant was reunited with her parents. “The infant was handed to the couple after counselling and making them sign a bond. Now CWC will be monitoring it, initially every 15 days and later it will be increased. The reasons why she was behaving like that are not clear yet. However, by the way she kept the infant, it seemed very decent, the infant was well fed, dressed up. The couple already has an elder girl child,” CWC Betul chairperson Abhishek Jain told TOI.

Officials said there was no indication of neglect or mistreatment of the infant. The couple, who had a love marriage about four years ago, already have an elder daughter. While the immediate welfare concerns regarding the child have been addressed, authorities are still unable to determine why the woman attempted to portray her own baby as someone else’s child.