Tsunami disaster baby reunited with parents

The four-month-old boy who was swept from his mother’s arms by the December 26 tsunami and later nicknamed “Baby 81” was handed to his parents in a courtroom reunion today after an agonising custody battle of nearly eight weeks.

A smiling Jenita Jeyarajah took her little son, Abilass, from a doctor’s arms after she and her husband, Murugupillai, approached the bench in a courtroom packed with onlookers. The baby was dressed in blue clothes and a pink cap.

The reunion concluded a drama that captured hearts in Sri Lanka and around the world, and came two days after a judge confirmed the infant’s parentage with DNA test results. Initially, eight other couples had tried to claim the baby.

Moments after today’s brief proceedings, the couple and Abilass left in a UNICEF vehicle to a local hospital, where the family prayed at a Hindu temple and the father smashed a coconut to fulfil the couple’s vows for the son’s return.

He carried the baby around the shrine, as other family members chanted prayers and raised their hands in a sign of worship.

Shortly after, they left for a temple of the elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh, further away from the hospital, where Murugupillai Jeyarajah smashed more coconuts and circled around the shrine twice.

The couple initially was unable to prove the boy was theirs because their home and family records were swept away by the December 26 tsunami. The court had ordered the boy kept in the hospital until the DNA results came in.

The raging waters pulled the boy from his mother’s arms, and rescuers recovered him from mud and debris hours later. They brought him to the hospital, where he became the day’s 81st admission, earning him the nickname “Baby 81.”