KATHMANDU, July 9

Police on Thursday arrested a woman who dumped her newborn into the Bagmati River.

A team of the Metropolitan Police Circle, Gaushala, caught Kanchhi Maya Tamang, 22, of Gokule, Kavre, after the cops saw her throwing ‘something wrapped in piece of cloth and a polythene bag’.

She was about to run away after the throwing what cops considered ‘a suspicious object’ when she was apprehended. Police then retrieved the floating bag from the river waters near Pashupati Aryaghat, only to find out that there was a newborn — still alive and crying.

“When we looked into the polythene bag, we found a baby boy crying,” a police official said, adding: “He is just four days old.” Both the mother and rescued newborn were immediately sent to Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital in Thapathali.

Health of newborn is said to be normal and getting postnatal care at the hospital. During interrogation, Tamang said she is married and decided to dump the newborn out of fear as the baby was born out of an illicit relationship ‘with a bus driver in Kathmandu in November’. Her husband is said be in foreign employment for the past two years.

“According to Tamang, she met the bus driver while coming to Kathmandu from her home district,” said the official. “But she could not identity the bus driver, saying she ‘can’t remember’.”

The police official said the woman has been changing her statement time and again. “We have launched further investigation to establish the facts,” the official added.

The woman also told police that she had given birth to the baby boy in Pashupati area.

According to police, on an average, five newborns are found dumped and dead in the Valley every month. This is one rare incident in which the discarded baby was rescued alive, said police.