Woman kills six-day-old daughter and throws body on adjacent roof in Khyala

A 28-year-old woman, facing social stigma for giving birth to her fourth girl, killed her six-day-old daughter and threw her body on the roof of an adjoining house in west Delhi's Khayala area. “A PCR call was received at around 5.30 am on Friday reporting that a six-day-old girl was missing. Given the sensitivity of the case, officials from the local police station immediately reached the scene,” said Vichitra Veer, deputy commissioner of police (west).

During initial questioning, the girl's mother Shivani claimed that she was discharged from the hospital the previous evening and returned to her parents' house. She told police that she fed the baby at around 2 am and slept with the child beside her, but when she woke up at 4.30 am, the baby was missing, DCP Veer said. The police official said a team has been formed to check the CCTV footage from the neighbourhood and search the nearby houses.

“During the search, Shivani said she had to go to the hospital to get her stitches removed. This raised suspicions but due to her health condition, the police allowed her to go,” the DCP said.

During the search, a bag was found on the roof of a neighboring house. When police opened it, they found the baby and immediately took her to the hospital, where doctors pronounced her dead, Veer said.

The DCP said a police team was then sent to a hospital, bus stations and Shivani's residence in Shahdara to trace her. During questioning, she broke down and confessed to the crime.

Shivani, during the initial interrogation, stated that the deceased was her fourth daughter, of whom two had already died. The accused cited social stigma as the reason for her actions, he said. While feeding the baby, Shivani was overwhelmed by these thoughts, smothered her daughter and then disposed of the body on the neighbouring roof. She later claimed that the baby went missing because she did not know what to tell her family, the DCP said.

Shivani has been arrested and a case of murder has been registered, Veer said. Police are waiting for the post-mortem results to verify the accused's statement and ascertain the exact cause of death, he added.