Mother Allegedly Smothers Her Newborn Baby To Death Because She Didn't Want A Girl

A 21-year-old woman in India allegedly smothered a newborn baby to death because she was "heartbroken" it was a girl.

Lovely Singh, hailing from the city of Kolkata, allegedly suffocated her baby with a pillow just nine hours after the child was born. The incident happened Wednesday at a private hospital, reported Hindustan Times.

The police said Singh was admitted to the hospital Monday. She stayed with her husband in a dual-bed room, and delivered a baby girl the next day. However, she was disappointed to learn it was a girl, and reportedly expressed her displeasure in front of the hospital staff too.

Pre-natal sex determination is illegal in India, and the law banning the determination of the gender of the fetus before birth is the first line of defense against female foeticide prevalent in the country.

Her husband, Ajay Singh, who was present at the hospital, had stepped out of the room Wednesday morning when a nurse found the infant unresponsive.

"The resident doctor declared the baby dead. The infant had no complication till Tuesday night," Jamaluddin Shams, director of the nursing home, told Hindustan Times.

The police were alerted, and the initial probe revealed the baby was healthy till 12.30 a.m. that day. An autopsy of the child revealed that she had been smothered to death.

When interrogated, the woman revealed she had murdered the child because she didn't want a girl. Though her husband claimed he had stepped out for tea and did not know about the alleged murder, the police suspect he may have been aware of the crime.

Officers believe the husband may have intentionally stepped outside under the ruse of having food to facilitate the murder. He was being interrogated, the police said.

Though a case was registered, the woman could not be arrested as she was weak. She is being kept under watch at the hospital. The pillow she used to smother the child and the infant’s clothes have been sent for forensic examination, reports added.

A similar case was reported in South Africa wherein a mother allegedly stuffed her newborn girl in a suitcase before burying her in a shallow grave. The child managed to survive the ordeal. The incident came to light after neighbors who heard about the woman's delivery asked to see the child. On learning that there was no sight of a newborn, they alerted the police.