Doctors and cops in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh in India are mystified by the discovery of baby girl found gasping for life two hours after being delivered in a toilet on Independence Day.

The newborn was promptly rushed to the neonatal ICU of a hospital in Sheopur (430 km from Bhopal), where she is stated stable now, reports the New Indian Express.

‘The police along with the women and child development department have begun a probe to figure out whether there was something malafide behind the incident,’ said the SP of Sheopur Shiv Dayal on Friday.

Sheopur, according to the 2011 census, is the 12th district in Madhya Pradesh in terms of a dismal sex ratio.

The incident happened in Sheopur, when a 28-year-old resident of Bangrod village, identified as Papita Gurjar, came out of the toilet and reported acute abdominal pain to husband Ghanshyam Gurjar on Tuesday.

He immediately rushed her to a community health centre (CHC) in Vijaypur area. Once at the CHC Ghanshyam and other family members told the doctors that Papita was full-term pregnant had reported acute abdominal pain.

Doctors took Papita into the operation theatre, but were surprised to find there was no baby.

They suspected that the baby might have been delivered in the toilet itself.

An ambulance was rushed to the woman’s house in Bangrod village. When the ambulance staff went inside the toilet, they heard the baby cry. The staff remained shell-shocked to see the newborn gasping for survival, almost two hours after being delivered.

Subsequent examination by doctors at the neonatal unit of the hospital revealed that the baby’s umbilical cord had been cut.

Smelling a rat in the development, the doctors informed the matter to the police, who are probing it.