A two-day-old baby girl has been stabbed more than 100 times with a screwdriver-like tool and dumped near a temple, according to Indian police.
Police in the city of Bhopal launched a murder investigation after finding a body with multiple puncture wounds on 24 September.
The incident is understood to be the third reported case of a female child being killed within the past two weeks in the city, which is the capital of Madhya Pradesh state in India.
Officers were called to the scene after members of the public found the baby girl, who has not been identified yet, wrapped in a shawl near the temple.
Police initially thought the child had been abandoned alive and killed by an animal in the night, but a post-mortem report revealed that they had been stabbed multiple times with a sharp tool like a screwdriver, The Times of India reported.
“The police sent the body for post mortem and its report received on Tuesday revealed that the child was attacked with a sharp tool multiple times on the stomach and back,” Renu Murab, a police inspector for Madhya Pradesh Police, said.
The newspaper added that officers were reviewing CCTV footage from cameras in the area as part of their investigation into the death, with police currently believing that the child was born at home before being murdered and abandoned.
The case came days after police in Bhopal charged a 25-year-old woman with murdering her one-month-old daughter, who was discovered dead in a water drum in the village of Khajuri.
Police said the woman was unhappy after giving birth to her daughter because she wanted a son.
