Still no birth certificate

Because of legal requirements, there can be no death certificate issued, without a birth being registered and a certificate issued.

And with no death certificate, no funeral and disposal of the body can be done.

Only on Thursday evening, medical doctor Ronald Budhooram, 60, was released from police custody in relation to the find in the freezer compartment of a fridge on Monday.

On the morning of July 1 and at seven months into her pregnancy, Cindy Gail Sooknanan, 22, gave birth to her son in a wagon in the driveway of relatives’ home at Chatoor Avenue, Fyzabad.

After the newborn was delivered, Sooknanan of Sewlal Trace, Fyzabad told police she dropped off the child in the care of a doctor.

Sooknanan and her boyfriend Kimraj Jorai subsequently learnt that the child had died and assumed the body was taken to hospital to be kept at the morgue.

But when a party of police officers from Homicide Bureau Region III and Mon Repos CID searched the doctor’s office, they discovered the tiny body secured in a black plastic bag.

They then detained Budhooram on Monday.

Forensic pathologist Dr Valerie Alexandrov performed an autopsy on Tuesday and concluded the baby died of complications arising out of being born prematurely.

On Thursday Budhooram was released from the San Fernando CID shortly after his attorney Subhas Panday filed a writ of habeas corpus in the San Fernando High Court.