Mother Who Abandoned Baby Under Banana Tree Arrested After Staging Discovery

The mystery surrounding the abandonment of a baby boy found under a banana tree in Dusun Geripak, Gelangsar Village, Gunungsari District, West Lombok, has been resolved. Police have arrested M (37), who is the biological mother of the infant. Gunungsari Police Chief Iptu Ida Bagus Adnyana Putra stated that M was taken into custody on Sunday after an investigation into the reported discovery of the baby. “The team gathered clues, conducted an in-depth investigation, and then interrogated the suspect until she finally admitted that the baby was her biological child,” Adnyana said on Monday. According to her confession, M gave birth alone on a plantation not far from her home. After delivering the baby under a banana tree, she left the infant at the location. To cover up her actions, M returned home and told her mother that she had found a baby on the plantation. The information was then reported to the hamlet chief and the community police officer before being forwarded to the Gunungsari Police. M is a former Indonesian migrant worker who had been employed in Saudi Arabia and only returned to Indonesia around five months ago. The suspect claimed the baby was the result of a relationship outside of marriage while she was working in Saudi Arabia. In addition to detaining the suspect, police seized a brown hijab used to wrap the baby as evidence. The suspect is currently being held at the Trauma Centre Protection House under the NTB Provincial Social Services. The baby boy was initially found by residents on Saturday, wrapped in a brown hijab with the umbilical cord already cut. A medical examination showed the baby weighed 2.3 kilogrammes, measured 50 centimetres in length, and had an oxygen saturation level of 95 per cent.