How stray dog leads to arrest of father in infant death case in Patiala

Hours after a stray dog was found carrying a severed head of an infant at Ward No 4 of Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, on Tuesday evening, SSP Patiala Varun Sharma claimed to have cracked the case and arrested the father of a child who was born dead.

The accused has been identified as Girdhari Lal. Instead of performing the last rites, he kept the body of the newborn in a black polythene bag and dumped the body in a garbage bin.

The stray dogs rummaging through the garbage found the head and took it inside the hospital.

The accused has been arrested and booked under section 94 of the BNS for secret disposal of a dead body.

According to the hospital authorities, the couple had arrived at the hospital on August 24 around 8:25 PM and gave birth to a dead child, which was categorised as intrauterine death (IUD).

On August 25, the dead body was handed over to the family, but the accused father, instead of performing the last rites, dumped the body in a bin. The accused, Girdhari Lal, has stated to the police that he was poor and did not have the means to perform the last rites, so he decided to dump the body. The police have also recovered pictures of the dead child saved on his mobile phone.

Punjab Health minister Dr Balbir Singh had on Tuesday ordered a probe into an incident.

The minister directed hospital authorities as well as the local police to investigate from all possible angles.