Indian parents take disowned baby girl back after DNA test

The newborn baby girl who remained unwanted for several days finally got to nestle up in her mother's arms on Thursday. But the parents accepted the infant only after a local court ordered them to do so, on the basis of a DNA test.

On the night of March 25, Poonam Kanwar had delivered a baby girl at Jodhpur's Ummaid Hospital. But the midwives - eager to pocket a handsome tip traditionally given for male babies - handed over a boy born to another woman to Poonam.

Mail Today had reported on March 30 that within two hours of the goof-up, the hospital staff realised that the boy was born to one Reshmi Devi. When they took away the boy, telling Poonam and her husband Chain Singh that she had actually given birth to a girl, the couple refused to accept the child.

Hospital superintendent Dr Narendra Chhangani ordered blood tests of the two sets of parents as well as that of both infants. The results proved that Poonam was indeed the mother of the girl. But Chhangani immediately recommended a DNA test at the Delhibased Central Forensic Laboratory as well to dispel doubts.

The DNA test report, confirming that Poonam and Singh were the parents of the girl, arrived on Thursday morning. Singh finally accepted the decision and expressed satisfaction that he was getting custody of 'the right child'.

However, he moved an application in the court demanding `10 lakh as compensation from the hospital, whose carelessness, he said, had deprived the baby girl of her mother's love all these days.