Took painkillers, antacids: Woman to cops

NEW DELHI : The 19-year-old athlete who delivered a stillborn premature baby in the toilet of an Air Asia flight at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport on Wednesday and allegedly abandoned it, had taken antacids and painkillers a day before the flight, police said.

Police are waiting for the post-mortem report of the foetus to confirm the reason for its death.

Around 3 pm on Wednesday, the crew discovered an aban- doned foetus in one of the lavatories of the I5-784 Imphal-guwahati-delhi flight when the plane was preparing to land in Delhi.

The police were informed and a team reached Terminal T3’s boarding gate number 49, where the woman, who had boarded the plane from Guwahati, was identified as the mother of the child.

The incident was reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

She told the police that she had delivered the foetus in the flight during the journey. The police sent the foetus for a postmortem examination and called the woman for questioning.

“We questioned her again on Thursday. She told police that she felt continuous pain a day before boarding her flight and so consumed painkillers and antacids, which led to excessive bleeding. The woman refused to undergo a medical examination. We are consulting doctors if the medicines she consumed can cause any complications. The foetus has been sent for post mortem and reports that would confirm the cause of death are awaited,” deputy commissioner of police (IGIA) Sanjay Bhatia said.

But speaking to HT, a senior city gynecologist said that a pain killer or an antacid cannot cause an abortion.

The DCP said the woman is a Taekwondo player and there is a possibility that she might have sustained an injury in a practice session that may have caused her child’s death.

A case under section 318 for concealment of birth by secret disposal of dead body has been registered and the matter is being probed, the officer said.