HYDERABAD, March 15: A poor couple has given away their new-born baby to a childless couple because they could not pay the hospital bill for the birth, the mother said on Thursday.

Mohammad Hanif and his wife Hakimzadi gave away their five-day-old son to the childless couple who paid Rs4,500 ($75) bill to the hospital.

“We already have six children while three others died because we could not care for them. At least this child will be taken care of,” Hakimzadi told Reuters at her home in Tando Adam.

“It is our child and we can do what we want with it,” she said.

DPO Zafar Iqbal said police were investigating but they had been told by the couple who took the child the baby had been adopted.

“The couple gave it to them for adoption as they don’t have any child after 20 years of marriage,” he said.

Hakimzadi said her husband was a labourer and a chronic tuberculosis patient who could not afford to feed their other children properly.—Reuters