Hyderabad: The incidents of dumpimg the bodies of newborn babies or embryos are reported every now and then in the city. On Thursday the body of a newborn boy was found dumped in a garbage bin in Vijayanagar Colony in Humayun Nagar.

Locals who noticed the body alerted cops. In most cases the bodies of the infants are those who died during delivery or after birth or are premature. Though cops register cases and investigate they say that it is difficult to identify those responsible.

However, in this case at Vijayanagar, the cops were lucky and the culprit was identified within hours. Pushpa and Balaraju, both labourers and residents of Wanaparthy in Mahbubnagar district came to the city for delivery at a private hospital. They were blessed with a boy and as per the advice of the doctors they were shifting the child to Niloufer when he died. “The doctors told them the child was weak and needs better treatment. The baby died while being shifted. They decided to abandon the body and left it in the garbage bin,” said inspector S. Ravinder.

A case was booked under Section 318 for concealment of birth and secret disposal of the body.

Mr Ravinder said though it is difficult to identify the culprits this time they were fortunate. “We checked about 15 hospitals and at last identified the parents. They committed an offence and action will be taken against them,” he added.

Meanwhile, officials said that identification of guilty parents is a difficult task in such cases.

“It’s truly difficult. We are not sure whether the parents are from the same locality or not. Though we check local hospitals about recent births, sometimes we have no clues. It is only when we have some strong suspicion we conduct a DNA test,” said an official.

Usually cops shift bodies to hospitals where an autopsy is conducted and DNA samples are collected. In some cases bodies are exhumed and send for DNA typing.