Police have arrested a young woman, identified by her initials SD, for allegedly leaving her newborn baby in a fishing pond in south Denpasar, making this the second case in recent weeks where an abandoned baby has been found dead in Bali.
“This is considered violence against children that resulted in death,” chief of the Denpasar Police, Ruddi Setiawan, said yesterday, as quoted by Kumparan.
According to police, SD, a 20-year-old from East Nusa Tenggara, admitted during questioning that she had given birth on July 19. She told authorities that she felt pain in her hips while taking a test at her university and excused herself to go to the restroom. She was bleeding by the time she got some privacy.
SD was reportedly shocked to have felt a baby’s head emerge during the process and then strained to get the baby out. She managed to successfully deliver the baby, but later smothered it to silence its crying.
“Her smothering resulted in the baby losing consciousness, and she threw it away in a fishing pond near the Grand Sudirman shops in South Denpasar. The baby was already dead by the time she was headed there, and afterwards she returned to her test,” Ruddi explained, as quoted by Tribun-Bali.
SD confessed that she was acting out of panic and had felt that her partner, who has been identified by his initials PW, was not going to take responsibility for the pregnancy.
“The suspect panicked [at the time], because she didn’t know she was pregnant. According to her confession, she did not get herself checked for pregnancy and had said that she last got her period in March 2019,” Ruddi said, as quoted by Bali Express.
The case came to light after local residents stumbled upon the dead baby floating in the fishing pond. After questioning witnesses around the area, police arrested SD on July 21.
Under Indonesia’s 2002 Child Protection Law, SD faces a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment.
Just yesterday, police in Bangli regency said they had arrested a couple for allegedly throwing away a newborn baby last week.
