Monday August 16, 2010
Angler’s horror find
PETALING JAYA: A man who was fishing at a river in Kota Damansara here decided to take a closer look at a dumped bag and was shocked to see a small hand sticking out of the bag. The man quickly alerted the police who discovered the body of a newborn baby girl inside the bag at 11.30am. Petaling Jaya OCPD Asst Comm Arjunaidi Mohamed said judging from the condition of the body and the umbilical cord, the baby was a day old.
Shocking discovery: Police observing the site where the baby was found in Kota Damansara yesterday. The infant had been covered up in a towel and a piece of cloth, and stuffed into the bag before being abandoned. Police are trying to ascertain if the baby was alive when she was dumped. ACP Arjunaidi urged anyone with information to contact the nearest police station.
The case is being investigated under Section 318 of the Penal Code for concealment of birth by secretly disposing of a dead infant. The case comes just days after the Cabinet had announced that anyone who dumped a baby, causing the child to die, could be tried for murder and sentenced to death. As at Aug 12, the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry had reported that 60 babies had been abandoned so far this year.
However, within 24 hours after the Cabinet’s announcement, three new baby dumping cases had been reported – in Malacca, Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan, with yesterday’s case being the fourth. Various non-governmental orga_nisations had said that capital punishment might not be the solution to baby dumping as proper education should be given to the young to prevent them from committing such a crime.
