Guwahati, Nov. 22: The Nagaon district administration has identified five women for conducting DNA tests to ascertain the paternity of the stillborn found in a litterbin near Bhogeshwari Phookanani civil hospital in Nagaon town on Saturday.
This was disclosed today by a two-member investigating team, comprising Rajeswar Sharma and Adil Shah, of the Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
The body was spotted in the bin near the hospital gate that is hardly 50 metres from the maternity ward when people noticed a few stray dogs rummaging through the dustbin and tugging at a body wrapped inside a plastic bag.
Though it is suspected that someone from the hospital might have dumped the stillborn in the dustbin, the hospital authorities claimed that the body was not of any baby born in the hospital.
Some attendants of patients admitted to the hospital alleged that illegal abortions were conducted there.
Sharma said it was too early to draw any conclusion as the inquiry was in the initial stage. "It will take some time to complete the probe after which we will submit a report to the state government."
He said DNA samples of the stillborn would be matched with the DNA profiles of the women for clues on the baby's parents and that Nagaon deputy commissioner Pratibandla Ashok Babu was making necessary arrangements for the tests.
Shah said the administration had already identified five women who had delivered babies at the hospital that day. "The deputy commissioner has taken the addresses of these five women from the hospital and asked the police to contact them. If any one or more among these five women are found to have delivered a stillborn girl at the civil hospital on that particular day, they will be called for DNA profiling," he added.
He refused to give further details as the matter is under investigation.
An official source said the two-member team of Sharma and Shah had visited Nagaon on Monday to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the matter. They interacted with the Nagaon deputy commissioner, superintendent of police Vivek Raj Singh, officials of health and social welfare departments, doctors and other staff of the hospital.