Chennai police have identified and detained a 34-year-old former flight attendant after her newborn daughter was found abandoned on a roadside near Chief Minister Vijay’s residence in Neelankarai on Thursday. The infant was rescued by police, treated at two hospitals and placed under care arranged by the Child Welfare Committee.
According to the police account reported by The Times of India, residents walking near the rear of the chief minister’s house on Fourth Main Road, Kapaleeswarar Nagar, heard an infant crying. They found the newborn girl with her umbilical cord still attached and alerted the Neelankarai police.
The baby was first taken to a private hospital and was later shifted to the Government Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in Egmore. Doctors said the infant was stable and receiving treatment.
Police identified the woman after examining CCTV footage from the locality. She lives in the neighbourhood and reportedly delivered the baby at her home two days before the child was found. Police detained her for questioning and referred her for mental health counselling.
Police said the woman declined to take custody of the infant. The report said she had initially considered leaving the baby at a nearby cremation ground after her parents refused to keep the child, but later abandoned her on the roadside instead.
The case has been recorded by Neelankarai police in the Community Service Register. Officers are also questioning the woman’s parents. The Child Welfare Committee has arranged care for the infant through an orphanage while the authorities continue their proceedings.
The case places multiple parts of the city’s child-protection response in sequence: residents alerted the police, the infant was transferred for medical care, and the CWC arranged institutional care after the mother declined custody. The report does not specify whether further legal action will follow or what long-term rehabilitation plan will be prepared for the child.
The immediate official steps are the completion of police questioning, continued medical monitoring of the infant and arrangements made through the Child Welfare Committee for her care.
