Thaindian News

New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS) Even as the Delhi Police Monday claimed to have found some leads to the parents of two-year-old Falak, the child continued to battle for life at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) with a brain surgery conducted on her to remove some fluids.

Meanwhile, police said they have identified the woman who gave the child to the teenager who got her admitted to the hospital Jan 18.

“Rajkumar Gupta, who is the key accused in the case, is still absconding but the woman from whom he received the child has been identified as Laxmi and she is being questioned,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Chhaya Sharma said.

According to police, a woman, Munni, mother of four, was the biological mother of the baby and had left the child in the house of Laxmi in Uttam Nagar area of west Delhi.

Laxmi, in turn, handed over the baby to Rajkumar alias Dilshad (28), who left the girl with his minor girlfriend before heading to Mumbai for the treatment of his son.

According to Sharma, Laxmi told police during interrogation that Munni had approached her in September last year claiming that her husband has abandoned her and her child.

A police team has been sent to Mumbai but is yet to locate Rajkumar. “Though investigators have conducted raids at his in-laws’ house in Mumbai, Rajkumar managed to slip out of the police net,” said the official.

Meanwhile, the toddler developed complications and was put on ventilator.

“Her condition is critical. She developed respiratory problems, so we put her back on the ventilator around 10.30 last (Sunday) night,” Deepak Agrawal, assistant professor (neurosurgery) at the J.P.N. All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre, told IANS. Falak had been taken off the ventilator Friday.

A brain surgery was conducted on her Monday. “We have done a small brain surgery to remove fluids from her brain. We suspect that there could be infection in her brain. She might require another surgery in the brain. But as her condition is critical, her chances of survival are slim,” Agrawal said.

Falak was admitted to AIIMS here Jan 18 with multiple injuries, including a fractured skull, human bite marks on her tiny frame and a clot on the right side of her brain. She was brought to the hospital by a teenaged girl who claimed to be her mother. The teenager is now in a juvenile home.

According to doctors, the baby’s chances of survival are slim.

Minister of State for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirath said her ministry will help rehabilitate the baby once she gets better.

“Her life is needed to be saved in the first place. If she recovers then we can rehabilitate her under the ICDS (Integrated Child Development Scheme). There are homes under the scheme where we can keep her and look after her. And she can be adopted if somebody wants to adopt her,” she told reporters here.

Earlier, apex child rights panel National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had sought a report on the status of the child from Delhi Police.