Nagpur: A newborn baby was found dead on a footpath in Abhinav Colony in Sonegaon area early Thursday morning, prompting police to register a case against an unidentified mother for allegedly abandoning the infant after giving birth.

According to police, around 5 am, a passerby noticed a carry bag containing a wrapped object lying on the footpath at Abhinav Colony in Panchdeep Nagar. On opening the bag out of curiosity, he found a dead newborn, believed to be around a day old. He immediately alerted the police control room.

Sonegaon police station in-charge Rahul Tasre sent a team to the spot. Police took custody of the infant and sent the body to a government hospital for postmortem examination. A case has been registered against the unidentified mother.

Police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the infant’s birth and abandonment. There is speculation in the locality that the baby may have been born from a relationship outside marriage, though this has not yet been established by the investigation.

DNA test planned

The incident comes days after a similar case was reported in Koradi, where a young woman allegedly abandoned a one-day-old infant at a garbage dump after becoming pregnant through a relationship. Police had registered a case against her.

Following the Sonegaon incident, police are preparing to conduct a DNA test to identify the child’s mother and establish the circumstances of the birth and abandonment.