Another newborn killed for being a girl

Mother was not happy with bearing a second girl child in quick succession

Awoman in Bihar killed her six-day-old baby girl, and dumped her body into a septic tank, as she didn’t want to bring up a second daughter, officials said.

Police arrested the accused woman on Wednesday.

The incident took place at Punas village in Samastipur district. The baby was killed on a day when the entire family was busy celebrating Chhati, a ritual conducted on the sixth day after the birth of a child.

Police said the woman, identified as Pinki Devi, wife of Santosh Rai, was not happy from the moment she gave birth to a baby girl for the second consecutive time. She had delivered the baby at a local government hospital on January 9.

However, her family members were not upset at all and had even arranged a Chhati celebration in the house. Just before the ritual was to begin, the baby suddenly went missing from the house. After an extensive search in the every corner of the house, her body was found dumped into the septic tank of the toilet.

Police recovered the body on Tuesday.

“Apparently the baby was first strangulated to death before being thrown into the toilet tank,” the local Samastipur district superintendent of police Nawal Kishore Singh told the media on Wednesday adding the accused would be suitably punished.

He said the police had evidence to prove the baby girl was killed, adding they would bring the case to the logical conclusion.

Mother-in-law suspicious

Police said the woman was not happy after she gave birth to the second girl child.

According to the police, the woman’s mother-in-law got suspicious of her role in the killing when she found her rushing to the toilet more often than usual.

Discrimination on the basis of sex is quite common in Bihar and there have been several incidents of girl children as well as their mothers treated with disdain despite continuing awareness drive by the government.

Last month, a man from Nawada district of Bihar handed out divorce to his wife after she gave birth to baby girl for the second consecutive time.