Police are on the hunt for the biological parents of a baby boy that was left in a duffel bag on the doorstep of a retired civil servant in Bali’s Tabanan regency on Sunday.
The infant, estimated to be less than a week old, was found wrapped in a blanket, inside a blue bag in front of Nengah Suwentra’s house. With the baby, inside the bag, was a note reading, “Please take care of my child.”
Witnesses reportedly told police that the bag was left by a woman driving a Honda Scoopy motorbike, who placed the bag on the doorstep and quickly drove off.
“We are still conducting an investigation. We are collecting information and asking for more information from witnesses in the field,” Tabanan Police Chief R Ismail said on Monday, as quoted by Detik.
When the bag was first seen on the doorstep, there were some fears that the duffel could have contained a bomb–one of the neighbors of Suwentra apparently urged them to contact the police before opening the bag. But Suwentra’s daughter-in-law, Ni Nyoman Arniti, 32, says she opened it anyway.
“I dared to open it because the bag was ajar, and I saw there was a baby’s finger. But because I doubted it could actually be a baby, I opened the bag up and it turned out it was a real baby. A baby boy.”
Inside the bag was reportedly also the baby’s placenta, wrapped in plastic.
Upon discovery, the baby was rushed to Tabanan Hospital. Now in healthy, stable condition, it’s alleged that the mother gave birth to the baby without the proper care of a doctor, as a piece of the baby’s umbilical cord was still attached, though not with a clean cut.
While child abandonment is not exceedingly common in Bali, there seem to be a growing number of cases in recent years of newborn babies or fetuses found discarded on the island.
Child abandonment charges in Indonesia carry a prison term of up to five years and a fine.
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