1-yr-old left starving as mother lay dead for 2 days; no one helped fearing COVID-19

Pune: A baby was found next to the body of his mother who had been dead for two days inside their home near Maharashtra's Pune -- one of the countless unspeakable tragedies that have emerged in the pandemic.

No one reached out to the family fearing Covid; a stench forced the landlord to call the police to the house located in Pimpri Chinchwad.

On Monday, the police broke into the house and found the woman's body and the infant next to her. The woman was suspected to have died on Saturday, which means the 18-month-old had been without food or water all that time.

Though neighbours shrank from even holding the baby, police constables Sushila Gabhale and Rekha Waze took charge and fed him.

"I also have two children, one eight, one six. The baby felt like my own child, he drank milk very quickly as he was very hungry," said Sushila Gabhale.

Her colleague Rekha said the child was miraculously fine, except for fever.

"The child had a little fever when we showed him to the doctor. He told us to feed him well, the rest is fine. After feeding the baby biscuit with water, we took the child to the government hospital for a corona test," she said.

The baby's Covid test has turned out negative and he was shifted to a government creche.

His mother's autopsy is yet to reveal how she died and it is not known whether she had Covid.

"The woman's husband had reportedly gone to Uttar Pradesh for work. We are waiting for him to return," said Prakash Jadhav, Police Inspector (Crime).

Maharashtra on Thursday reported 66,159 Covid cases and 771 deaths in 24 hours. Pimpri Chinchwad has recorded over 2,400 cases in a day.