UTTARPARA, West Bengal — Police in West Bengal’s Hooghly district opened an inquiry Saturday after a 16-year-old girl allegedly delivered an infant unassisted inside a municipal nursing home washroom and threw the newborn from a window. The baby girl died instantly from the fall.
Emergency personnel were alerted shortly after dawn. The teenager’s family had brought her to the Uttarpara Municipality nursing home late Friday night after she complained of acute abdominal pain. Her parents insisted they had no knowledge of her pregnancy, claiming they sought urgent medical care for a severe stomach ailment. Facility staff admitted the minor overnight and ran diagnostic blood tests early Saturday.
Shortly after dawn, the patient walked unaccompanied into the washroom as her contractions mounted. She delivered the infant alone without medical staff present. Seconds later, she allegedly pushed the newborn through the washroom window aperture. A passerby spotted the infant on the ground below and alerted facility security. A duty nurse rushed outside to retrieve the child, but attending doctors pronounced the infant dead at the scene.
"As her abdominal pain intensified on Saturday morning, she walked to the toilet on her own," said Sucheta Mukherjee, owner of the nursing home. "She delivered the baby there without any assistance. She threw the newborn out through the window."
Mukherjee stated that intake staff had questioned the family during admission regarding a possible pregnancy, but relatives dismissed the query. The teenager's mother maintained the family remained unaware of the condition until nursing home administrators telephoned them Saturday morning.
Officers from Uttarpara police station cordoned off the washroom and secured digital video recorders from the facility’s internal surveillance network. Investigators are cross-referencing intake logs, duty rosters, and laboratory orders to establish the sequence of events prior to the delivery.
"We are investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings," a senior Uttarpara police officer said. "We will examine the nursing home's CCTV footage and speak to the parents and other family members in this connection."
Pathologists will conduct a post-mortem examination on the deceased infant to determine the precise medical cause of death, while police prepare formal legal proceedings under applicable juvenile and criminal statutes.