She was going about her daily cleaning duties at a toilet at Tampines MRT Station on Friday afternoon (June 3), when she stumbled upon a shocking find in a sanitary bin: The body of a newborn in a red plastic bag.
“When I found it, of course I was shocked, and I thought ‘why is there a baby here?’. But I was quiet, I didn’t scream,” Mdm Jumiati Amat, 75, told reporters in Malay.
The baby, later revealed to be male, was pronounced dead on the scene by paramedics when they arrived. The case is now being investigated by the police.
When TODAY arrived at the scene at about 2.30pm, several police vehicles were on site. Curious onlookers had gathered outside the toilet, which was cordoned off and manned by more than 10 police officers. Several of the officers — along with forensics professionals — were seen walking in and out of the toilet. The cordon was maintained for at least two hours as investigations were carried out. A body bag was brought out of the toilet at around 4pm.
Mdm Jumiati said that after discovering the body at 1.30pm, she removed it from the bin and placed it in her trolley. She then left the toilet to alert two SMRT staff, who called the police.
“I start work at 7am and check if the toilets are dirty. In the morning, there was nothing … I’ve never found something like this in all my years of working,” she said.
It is an offence to secretly dispose of a child’s dead body and hide the birth of the child. A person convicted of this offence may be jailed up to two years or fined, or punished with both. Last year, an Indonesian woman working here as a maid was arrested after she gave birth to a stillborn child, and hid the foetus in a drawer at her employer’s house.
There have also been cases of child abandonment. Last year, two teenagers left their newborn son in an SG50 bag outside the father’s parents’ flat. The 14-year-old mother had given birth in a toilet. She was sentenced to probation by a youth court, while her 18-year-old boyfriend was sentenced to two years’ probation and 100 hours of community service.
It was reported that there were 21 babies found abandoned by their parents between 2006 and 2015. Those found guilty of abandoning a child can be jailed for up to seven years or fined, or punished with both.
Source: TODAY Online
