Mumbai: Woman held for drowning infant son

“She had three sons. The youngest had fallen ill after birth and instead of taking him to a doctor, she took him to some baba… When the child’s health continued to deteriorate, she came to her parents’ house with the infant,” said a police officer.

Gaikar had come to stay at her parents’ house in Kaaspada in the beginning of August. On August 8, she raised an alarm that she couldn’t find her son, police said. “We received a call and during investigation, found the boy in a drainage pipe near the house. The child wasn’t moving. When we rushed him to the hospital, he was declared brought dead on arrival by the doctors,” the officer said.

Following this, a case of accidental death was lodged. “In the beginning, the woman accused the neighbours of stealing her baby and drowning him. But someone from the neighbourhood had seen her sneaking out of the house with the baby. We later found her slipper in the drain,” the officer said.

“We decided to take the woman in custody. During questioning, she broke down and confessed that she had killed her son. The woman said that she was irritated by the constant crying of the sick child. She also said something about the baba advising her to end the baby’s life. It is possible that this was a case of sacrifice by the mother on the advice of the baba. We are trying to identify him,” he added.

While the mother has been remanded in police custody, a search is on for the baba. “We might arrest the baba if indeed he had tried to convince the mother for human sacrifice. We are also going to get a mental evaluation of the accused done,” the officer said.