A 58-year-old woman was arrested on Tuesday for killing her month-old granddaughter by throwing her into a septic tank in the courtyard of their house in Nuh’s Jaurasi village in the early hours of Friday. The woman is waiting for her COVID-19 report before she is sent to jail.
The newborn was sleeping with her mother on the intervening night of September 3 and 4. When the girl’s mother Manisha woke up a little after 1 a.m., she found the child missing. She raised an alarm and woke up her husband Pradeep and other family members. A frantic search for the child began.Laxmi, at this point, said she had seen a big black cat around the house during the day and suggested the feline could have taken away the child.
The family looked for the child in the neighbourhood and in the fields on the outskirts of the village for hours.After several hours of futile search, they informed the police. Two days later, an informer told the police that a family member was behind the murder. “We interrogated the family and the woman, Laxmi, confessed,” police said.
It was revealed during her interrogation that the couple did not want more children after the birth of their third daughter and planned to undergo sterilisation. The woman wanted her son to have a boy. “I thought that if the newborn was killed, they will plan another child,” said Laxmi. “The desire for a male child has ruined my little world,” remarked Pradeep, at his house in the village.
“I was quivering with fear and guilt as I threw her in the septic tank. But I had lost my mind. My son and his wife were happy having three daughters, but I wanted a grandson to continue the family line,” said Laxmi inside the women’s lock-up at Tauru police station here on Tuesday.
Mr. Singh said a police officer was a complainant in the case since the family could turn hostile during trial. The woman has been booked for murder and destruction of evidence.
