Woman kills 'unwanted' newborn in Kerala, arrested

Kasaragod (Ker), January 7

In a cruel incident of infanticide, a 26-year-old woman in Kerala has allegedly strangled to death her newborn girl baby using an earphone cable as she had not planned for the child, her second.

Sahina, native of Chedakkanam, was arrested on Thursday on charges of killing the infant, weeks after the incident in Badiaduka village in this northernmost district, police said.

Though the incident occurred on December 15, the arrest was made only now after the woman, who had been maintaining she did not remember what happened, confessed to killing the baby and hiding the body under a cot wrapping it in a cloth.

During interrogation, the woman told police she resorted to the killing out of disappointment of becoming pregnant again within about four months after giving birth to her first child.

However, her husband, an employee in a shop in Ernakulam, alleged she had hidden about her second pregnancy from him and the family all along.

It came to light after Shahina, found bleeding in her home on December 15, was admitted the next day to a private hospital. Doctors later confirmed she had given birth to a full-grown baby hours before being brought there.

“It was based on the doctor’s statement that the relatives searched the house and found the body of the child. But, she was not ready to reveal anything in the beginning,” a police officer told PTI.

First she said she was not remembering anything and later she gave contradictory statements.

“Later, she said her first baby was just one year and two months old. She did not want another baby soon, and she hid the pregnancy from the family out of shame,” he added. — PTI