A mother of a newborn found wrapped in a plastic bag in the Georgia woods in 2019 has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Karima Jiwani, 41, will also serve 15 years of probation following her release after pleading guilty on Thursday, Feb. 13, to criminal attempt to commit murder and first-degree cruelty to children.
“I think that this was an appropriate resolution to the case,” Forsyth County District Attorney Penny Penn tells PEOPLE. “There were no mitigating or extenuating circumstances for her to do what she did. She made a conscious decision to put this child in a bag, tie a knot in it, put it on the side of the road, and then leave her. She intended for this baby to die.”
Jiwani abandoned the child who became known as “Baby India” in a wooded area on June 6, 2019. A man and his two daughters who lived in the area found the baby in a tied up plastic bag, crying and covered in blood, with the umbilical cord still attached.
“They were sure that they heard a baby’s cry, which again, is just hard to believe that that could be accurate,” says Penn. “They persisted in searching until they were able to confirm that in fact, it was a baby.”
The child was in good condition and weighed 6 lbs, 5 oz, FOX 5 reported.
It would take almost four more years before investigators identified Jiwani as the child’s mother.
The break in the case came in late 2022 when investigators used advanced genetic genealogy to identify Baby India’s birth father, which ultimately led to the suspect.
Investigators learned through interviews with Jiwani’s family and friends that she allegedly had a “history of hidden and concealed pregnancies and surprise births,” and that she had allegedly “known about the pregnancy for a considerable period of time” and “went to extremes to conceal this pregnancy,” Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman said at a press conference in May 2023 after Jiwani’s arrest.
Freeman said investigators found evidence that suggested that Jiwani gave birth to Baby India in her car and drove around for a “significant amount of time” before abandoning the newborn.
“Shortly before the arrest, investigators had the defendant under surveillance, and at a local Walmart parking lot, she discarded some trash that contained plastic bottles,” says Penn. “Those were submitted for DNA analysis and came back with matches of two full siblings to India.”
Jiwani was charged with criminal attempt to commit murder, aggravated assault, reckless abandonment and first-degree cruelty to children.
Jiwani’s defense attorneys said during a previous court hearing that the mother had suffered from postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis, 11 Alive reported.
Penn says Baby India is doing well. “She will soon be 6, so not so much of a baby anymore,” she says. She is with a family that loves her and wanted her. At the end of the day, it is a story that starts out very dark and awful. But in this case, it did have a happy ending. It’s a rough way to come into the world, there’s no doubt about it. But really, the baby was born healthy, no complications. And then she was discovered before anything terrible happened and then ended up with a family that did want her.”
