Mother Burns 5-Month-Old Baby Alive, Family Suspects 'Occult Practice'

In a horrific incident, a woman in India set her 5-month-old baby on fire, which resulted in the child's death.

The incident took place in a village in the state of Madhya Pradesh. According to media reports, the accused, identified as Guddi Singh, was arrested after she confessed to the crime.

"The accused Guddi Singh is stated to be mentally unstable. She confessed to her crime but didn’t say much. The counsellors are taking care of her," police sub-inspector Manoj Singh said, the Hindustan Times reported.

The media outlet added, citing police officials, that the woman was being treated by a sorcerer.

“Prima facie, it has surfaced that both Guddi Singh and her husband Pushpraj have psychological issues. On Dec. 25, the husband and wife had a quarrel over some petty issue,” Singrauli superintendent of police Virendra Baghel told the Times of India, adding the woman was alone in the house when she set the baby on fire.

“She wrapped up the baby and set fire to it. On seeing the infant burn, she threw the baby to one side and hid in a pile of hay," Baghel said, the Times of India reported.

Another police official said: “Other villagers saw flames coming out of the house and ran inside to find the infant burning. The father and grandparents also arrived and took the child to the hospital, but he died on the way."

Police arrested the woman after the child's grandmother filed a complaint saying that the baby was set on fire as he was "crying a lot." However, the woman claimed she was unaware as to why Singh set the child on fire. The family of the accused said they suspect the woman killed her son as part of some "occult practice."

The police told local media the woman, who also has three daughters, started behaving differently after she gave birth to her son.

"Police are investigating the role of the sorcerer as some family members suspect that the woman killed her son for occult practice," Baghel said, the Hindustan Times reported.

In an incident earlier this month in Indonesia, three children were found dead with their throats slit. Police said that the mother of the children killed them with a machete over financial troubles. The attack occurred when the victims’ older sibling, father and grandparents were not in the house. The victims were 5, 4 and 2 years old, police said at the time.