2 held for dumping newborns in canal
BATHINDA: Punjab Police on Thursday arrested a woman and her son for allegedly dumping a pair of newborn twin girls of her daughter in the Bathinda branch of Sirhind Canal.
Amandeep Kaur, wife of Gurpreet Singh, of Chak Atar Singh Wala village and a mother of two girls aged three and 12 years, gave birth to premature twins at a private hospital in Bathinda on Wednesday. Acting on the complaint of Dr Amandeep Singh of the hospital, police have arrested Amandeep Kaur’s mother Malkit Kaur and brother Baljinder Singh, residents of Behman Dewana village, under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of Indian Penal Code.
The complainant said that paediatrician who was on duty at the time of the twins’ birth asked the woman’s family to get the newborns admitted to some other hospital as they were premature and needed medical help, but the family refused to do so.
“Around 8.15 pm, Malkit and Baljinder were seen taking the newborns out of hospital. They told the hospital staff that they were taking the infants to some other hospital but staff asked them to give it in writing and they did so,” said Dr Singh. He said on Thursday morning, when the hospital staff asked the family about the newborns, Malkit said they died.
The hospital authorities immediately informed the police. Civil Lines station house officer Ravinder Kumar said the police were trying to trace the bodies of the newborns.
Bathinda senior superintendent of police Nanak Singh said that suspects threw newborns into the canal as they didn’t want any more girl child. HYDERABAD: A 55-year-old man was burnt to death after being accused of practising black magic by a mob at Puttabandha in Andhra Pradesh’s Visakhapatnam district, a police officer said on Thursday.
The mob tied K Jayaram to a tree, thrashed him before pouring petrol over him. He was then set on fire. The incident came to light on Wednesday when Jayaram’s family lodged a police complaint. The police said Jayaram was killed after a nine-year old girl, who was suffering from viral fever for some days, was heard murmuring in her sleep that Jayaram beat and strangled her. “Her parents and their relatives informed the same to the village heads, who held a village panchayat on Tuesday and summoned Jayaram. The girl’s father and others accused Jayaram of practising chillangi [witchcraft]... but he denied knowledge of any such practice,” said sub-inspector of police L Himagiri. The police said as Jayaram was pleading his innocence, the girl’s kin and others tied him to a tree and beat him brutally before setting him afire.