Newborn's body exhumed for baby swapping investigation

The body of a newborn, buried about a fortnight ago at Hinjili in Ganjam district, was exhumed by the police for investigation into an alleged baby swapping incident at MKCG Medical College and Hospital here.
The body of the boy was sent to the forensic department after exhuming it yesterday and if necessary, DNA test will be conducted, Berhampur Superintendent of Police Sarthak Sarangi said.
Two couples had recently complained of baby swapping at the special newborn care unit (SNCU) of the hospital, he said.
One of the couple has also accused the hospital authorities of baby swapping. Sibaram Basantia of Sunathara village said his wife Sunita had delivered a son on February 20 but the hospital authorities handed over a girl to them on March 6 when the baby was discharged from SNCU.

Another couple from Hinjili on Tuesday complained to the police that the girl handed over to Sunita might be theirs because the hospital staffer had informed them about the birth of a girl child on February 21.
Both the children were in the same bed in the SNCU.

"When we came to know that the girl was alive and a couple was not accepting her, we suspected she might be our daughter," said Anil Biswasray of Hinjili.
Meanwhile, four days after the death of the girl child, the authorities handed the baby to Biswasray. Without verifying the baby's sex, the grief-stricken couple buried the body, police said.

"Preliminary inquiry points to baby swapping but we have to find out whether it happened due to bad intention or negligence," the SP said.
"We have formed a five-member committee to probe the incident," administrative officer of the medical college, Jyotirmayee Pradhan said.
The committee has four senior professors and the administrative officer as members.