Just days after a woman was sentenced to life and rigorous imprisonment for suffocating her one-and-a-half-year-old son to death near Thodupuzha in Kerala's Idukki district, yet another chilling incident has come to plague the highlands.
The police on Wednesday arrested a 27-year-old woman, a native of Moolamatoom, accused of killing her newborn at a private hostel in Kattappana.
The woman, identified as Amalu George, is a cashier at a bank here. She gave birth to a baby boy at her hostel room last week. Soon after, the unmarried woman smothered the baby to death using clothes and her hands, according to the police.
Neither the woman's relatives nor the others staying at the hostel, including her elder sister, knew that she was pregnant. The woman had even been going to the bank without revealing that she was pregnant.
Grappling with labour pain on Friday, the woman sent her sister away to fetch medicines and after, delivered the baby.
She subsequently informed others about the childbirth. She also said that the baby was stillborn.
The woman's health had deteriorated after the childbirth and she was rushed to the Nedumkandam hospital and then moved to the Kottayam Medical College Hospital.
The police had sent the baby's body to the Kottayam Medical College Hospital for post-mortem. The autopsy report revealed that the baby was murdered. An injury to the head is suspected to be the cause of death.
After the woman was discharged from the hospital, the probe team arrested her.
According to the police, the woman was in a relationship with an official at the bank where she worked. Though her lover knew that the woman was pregnant, he was not linked to the murder, according to preliminary reports.
DySP N C Rajmohan, SHO Vishal Johnson, SI Santhosh Sajeev, ASI Saji Thomas, CPOs Preethi and Rafiya led the investigation. The woman will be presented in court on Thursday.
