Doctor denies role in missing baby case

A day after a Ramanathapuram couple’s allegations in connection with their newborn, the doctor at the private hospital, where the baby was born, has claimed the couple had been insisting on sex determination of the foetus since the day they came to the hospital. The doctor, Dr Ramaneeswari, denied that the child was either still-born or kept back in the hospital for treatment, as the parents claimed. “Since Sakthivel and Kavitha have two daughters, they were keen on determining the gender of their third child from the beginning. But I told them it is against The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT) Act & Rules. The child was born on September 16, 2015 and we discharged the mother, after sterilisation, along with the baby on September 19,” she said. 

The doctor added that the couple had been harassing her since December. “Their lawyer sent a notice to me last month. They alleged that I had retained the baby in the hospital for treatment and later told them their child had died. But then how could I have hidden the child’s body? These are baseless allegations,” she said.

Sakthivel and Kavitha, who are in Chennai for the latter’s treatment at Royapettah GH, are still in a fix about the fate of their complaint to the Ramanathapuram police. The couple maintains that the child given to them, which is under the temporary care of Grace Kennet Foundation in Madurai, is not theirs. “All we are asking for is a DNA test. Once it is established that the child is ours, we will accept it,” said Sakthivel. Kavitha, who is undergoing treatment at the hospital was not in a condition to comment.