SRI LANKA: A baby boy rescued from the mud, debris and corpses left on the shores of Sri Lanka by the tsunami will be handed over tomorrow to the couple who had fought desperately for weeks to get him back, after a DNA test confirmed his parentage.
Eight other couples had claimed the boy as their own.
Nicknamed Baby 81 because the child was the 81st admission on the day he arrived at the hospital, four-month-old Abilash will be reunited with his parents, Murugupillai and Jenita Jeyarajah, court officials said.
"I am so happy, and I only have to thank God for giving my child back," Mr Jeyarajah said. "We've got the results for all our hardships." The parents said they had been unable to sleep and had received counselling.
The saga, which has gripped the country, began in the coastal town of Kalmunai, where the boy was found. The Jeyarajahs were the only couple to file a formal case to keep the boy, but could not document it because their records were swept away in the tsunami.
A court ruled that the child must stay in the hospital in Kalmunai, on Sri Lanka's battered eastern seaboard, until DNA tests confirmed who his parents were. Escorted by armed guards, Abilash was sent 200 miles across Sri Lanka last week to a laboratory in the capital, Colombo.
At a hearing yesterday in Kalmunai, attended only by lawyers, the district judge unsealed the results, read them aloud and ordered the couple, hospital officials and the baby to appear before the court.
The parents have vowed to make offerings to Hindu gods as thanks for regaining their son. - (Guardian Service)