Faridabad: Mother held after girl, 1, found dead in drain

CCTV showed woman carrying child toward drain, returning alone; body found by schoolchildren stuck in mesh, police said.

Days after a one-year-old girl’s body was recovered from a drain in Faridabad’s Palla area, police on Sunday arrested her 28-year-old mother, who allegedly threw the child into the drain, leading to her death by drowning.

Autopsy confirmed drowning; accused traced to slum cluster, allegedly cited financial distress during questioning, officials said. (Getty Images)

The case came to light on April 23 when two schoolchildren found the child’s body stuck in an iron mesh along the edge of a drain around 2pm while returning from school, officers said. Locals alerted the police, following which a team from Palla police station reached the spot, retrieved the body with residents’ help and sent it for post-mortem to the Faridabad Civil Hospital in Ballabgarh.

Police said the autopsy confirmed that the child died due to drowning. A team from the DLF crime branch then analysed CCTV footage from nearby areas and identified a woman carrying a child towards the drain around 7.30 am that morning. In subsequent footage, she was seen returning alone.

Based on these inputs, police traced the woman to a slum cluster in Dheeraj Nagar and arrested her on Sunday. The accused, originally from Madhubani district in Bihar, had been living in Faridabad with her husband for several years.

During questioning, she allegedly confessed to the crime. Police said she told investigators that the family was facing severe financial hardship and she was unable to care for her children, said Faridabad police spokesperson Yashpal Yadav. “The toddler was the youngest among six daughters. Officers said her husband is physically disabled and works in a private firm. Police are also verifying whether any other family member had prior knowledge of the incident,” he added.

Police have not yet disclosed the condition or status of the other children, and said the investigation into all aspects of the case is ongoing. An FIR has been registered at Palla police station under sections 103 murder) and 238(a) (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.