Nearly four years after a newborn baby was found abandoned in a plastic bag in the woods of rural Georgia, deputies have arrested a woman they believe to be the child’s birth mother and have her charged with attempted murder.
Karima Jiwani, 40, was taken into custody by one of the sheriff’s deputies who helped rescue the newborn nearly four years ago.
She was charged with felony attempted murder, aggravated assault, reckless abandonment, first-degree child cruelty and several other counts, according to the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.
Georgia authorities found the baby in Cumming, Georgia, after a 911 call on June 6, 2019. Baby India — a name given to her by authorities — was placed in a Georgia-approved foster family. Department of Family. and Children’s Services.
At the time, the sheriff’s office released a video of the deputies finding the newborn in hopes it would lead to information about the baby’s identity.
Karima Jiwani, 40, was arrested on Thursday for abandoning her baby girl in the Georgia woods in 2019
The video showed an MP ripping open a plastic bag to reveal the baby girl still covered in fluids from birth with the umbilical cord attached. She was then taken to a local hospital.
The baby’s survival was called miraculous by Sheriff Ron Freeman: “At the time I called it divine intervention and I truly believe it, still today.”
‘If you look at everything that had to happen for this little girl to survive, for people in the know to hear a noise in the woods that they thought was a wild animal, but two teenage girls who couldn’t let it go because’ they thought he looked like a crying baby,’ Freeman said on Friday.
The teenagers convinced their father to go out in the middle of the night in the woods to try to locate the origin of the sound.
The big break in the years-long case came 10 months ago when the sheriff’s office was able to identify Baby India’s father using family DNA. The biological father was apparently unaware of the pregnancy and is not facing charges.
After thousands of hours of investigation, Jiwani was arrested on Thursday and later denied bail.
“I told you four years ago that we would find them and my handcuffs would be on them, and they were,” Freeman told a news conference.
“How a parent, and I am one too, can do such an insensitive thing is both incomprehensible to all of us and infuriating,” he continued.
“I’m stunned by any reasoning that might be there and how anyone can have the ability to let their own child die.”
Sheriff Ron Freeman said the arrest came after thousands of hours of work by his deputies
Baby India was found in a plastic bag in the woods of Georgia, miraculously still alive after being abandoned hours after birth
10 months ago, India’s biological father was identified through DNA testing. Her positive identification led authorities to the child’s mother
Freeman said evidence suggests Jiwani gave birth in her car and drove “for a significant period of time” before dropping the baby off in the woods.
“This child was tied up in a plastic bag and dumped in the woods like a garbage bag. I can’t understand that, I really wish I could. I struggle, but I don’t know how you can understand that. It’s literally one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen,” he said.
The sheriff’s office also alleges that Jiwani has “a history of hidden and concealed pregnancies and surprise births” and that she knew about her pregnancy for “a fairly considerable period of time and went to extremes to conceal it.” .
According to Freeman, baby India is currently happy and healthy.
Sheriff Freeman said baby India is now happy and thriving
During a court appearance on Saturday morning, Jiwani’s lawyer told the court that the woman suffered from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis like “millions” of other women across the country.
He also pointed out that Jiwani had no criminal record and was a homeowner and stay-at-home mother of three children.
District Attorney Penny Penn chastised the claim, saying postpartum depression doesn’t happen until some time after a child is born and Jiwani was accused of dumping the newborn within hours. after his birth.
Penn added that Jiwani admitted to authorities that she intended to kill her child during an interview after her arrest.
Jiwani’s next hearing is set for June 13.
