In a chilling case of female infanticide in Madurai district's Usilampatti area, a month-old baby girl was allegedly poisoned by her parents and grandfather.
The couple S Vairamurugan (37) and Sowmya (22) have a one-and-a-half-year-old girl child and were unhappy with the birth of another daughter and allegedly chose to kill her on the night of 2 March. All three have been arrested by the police and booked for murder, criminal conspiracy and tampering with evidence.
According to the police, the entire family was part of the conspiracy, with the father fetching the leaves of a plant which exudes a toxic milk like substance. The mother then allegedly proceeded to feed it to the baby who died shortly after. The grandfather and father then allegedly buried the baby in a lane off the main road near their village.
“We received an anonymous tip from someone in the village saying the baby girl had died suddenly and when we went to investigate there was nobody in the residence,” Usilampatti Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) A Raja tells TNM. Suspicious, the police then tracked down the family.
“They admitted to the crime in front of the Village Administrative Officer. The family said they were daily wage workers and wanted a male child who could go out and earn,” says the police official. “It is regrettable that they would choose to kill the infant as opposed to utilising the cradle scheme,” he adds.
Usilampatti is an area that was notorious for female infanticide till the late nineties. Then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had even introduced the cradle baby scheme in the area for parents to anonymously drop of their girl children, to stop the murders. The government further announced financial benefits for the second and third girl child in the family.
In November last year too, a 15-day-old baby girl was suspected to be murdered in Usilampatti by her parents whose first child is also a daughter.
The family had taken the infant to a private hospital claiming she was ill but the hospital pronounced the baby ‘brought dead’. They had allegedly immediately buried the baby and failed to inform the local police.
“We are still awaiting the post mortem results on this case. We will know conclusively if the child was murdered only based on scientific evidence,” says the DSP.
(The story has been published in an arrangement with The News Minute.)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)