A newborn girl born to a couple from the Chanderi area in Madhya Pradesh was allegedly strangled to death within 16 hours of birth at a hospital in MP’s Ashoknagar district, police revealed while probing the case.
The baby, as per officials, was admitted to the hospital after birth and kept under medical observation. By Saturday afternoon, she was found dead.
Initially, what appeared to be a sudden deterioration in the newborn’s health is now being suspected to be a murder after doctors noticed marks around her neck and blood coming from her mouth.
“An initial medical investigation showed that there were some marks on the infant’s neck. Furthermore, blood was also spotted on her face. We are questioning the infant’s family members,” said a police officer.
A detailed investigation into the death disclosed ligature or compression marks around the baby’s neck, indicating that she might have been strangled to death.
The finding prompted investigators to reconstruct the few hours prior to her death. Family members and hospital staff involved in the situation were being questioned to understand the sequence of events that led to the incident.
The baby was born late on Friday night at around 11:50 p.m. and was admitted to the Special Newborn Care Unit (SNCU) soon after. She was found dead between 3 and 4 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, nearly 16 hours after her birth.
The official who took her to the SNCU after finding her unresponsive said, “Doctors examined the child and found that she had already died. The baby had blood coming from her mouth and marks resembling pressure around her neck. Given these circumstances, the hospital treated the death as suspicious and informed the police, following which the body was sent for post-mortem examination.”
The recently born baby girl was the second daughter of the parents. Investigators are examining whether the gender of the baby could have been a reason for her death.
The possibility of the involvement of a family member in the death is also being investigated, as access to the baby inside the hospital was restricted to family members.
Besides, the absence of CCTV cameras inside the SNCU has made it difficult for investigators to ascertain how she was killed.