Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: The two-year-old baby girl Falak, who was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre here in a battered condition on January 18, continues to battle for her life.
The doctors at AIIMS performed a second life-saving surgery on the baby on Monday but her condition remains critical and the chances of survival continue to be slim.
While the nation, on one hand, is praying for the baby who was gruesomely bitten by humans and her head allegedly smashed against a wall, the police have further intensified their hunt for the people who have contributed to the girl’s misery.
So far, five people have emerged as the key characters suspected to be behind the baby girl’s condition.
The police are hunting for a 28-year-old man called Rajkumar, alias Dilshad, who "adopted" the baby and gave her to a 14-year-old teenaged girl for upkeep, who in turn admitted Falak to AIIMS with severe injuries.
The teenaged girl has admitted to battering the baby in a fit of rage.
According to investigations so far, one Laxmi, a resident of Uttam Nagar in West Delhi, told police that one Munni along with her daughter had come to her house in September last year claiming that her husband has abandoned them.
Laxmi offered her stay in her house and Munni worked as a maid there. Laxmi said Munni disappeared from her house after about 20 days, leaving the child there.
After some days, a neighbour named Manoj approached Laxmi saying that Rajkumar, a taxi driver, was willing to adopt her.
After Laxmi handed over the baby to Rajkumar, he allegedly took the child to his house in Dwarka where he was staying with wife and cousin. His children were
in Mumbai with his in-laws.
The question of keeping the child at home led to differences between Rajkumar and his wife, following which the man took the baby to his teenaged girlfriend who was living in another locality.
In mid-January, Rajkumar left for Mumbai to treat his physically-challenged son.
The teenager, who was taking care of the baby, became frustrated as she wasn’t able to take proper care of the child and assaulted her physically.
Though investigators managed to trace Rajkumar to his in-laws' house but he managed to slip out of police net in Mumbai after his friends tipped him off.
Delhi Police have also released a photograph of Rajkumar.
Police also believe Munni is not Falak’s biological mother and could have stolen the baby, possibly from a construction site.
Meanwhile, the baby, Falak is into her 13th day of stay in the hospital and her condition continues to be critical. She had to be put back on ventilator in the wee hours of Monday.
After investigations revealed water accumulation in her brain, doctors were compelled to carry out a surgery on Monday afternoon.
This is the second surgery she has undergone after she was brought to the hospital. The first surgery was conducted for removal of a blood clot in the brain.
(With agency inputs)
First Published: Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 09:43