Kolkata homemaker arrested for smothering daughter hours after birth

The Kolkata Police have sent the pillow suspected to have been used to smother her daughter for forensic examination

KOLKATA: Lovely Singh, the Kolkata homemaker accused of killing her daughter at a private nursing home on Tuesday night hours after the child’s birth, was arrested on Thursday, police said.

The Kolkata woman accused of killing her newborn told nurses that she was heartbroken at her birth of her daughter as she wanted a son. (AFP File photo)

Police took Singh into custody after she was discharged by Netaji Subhas Nursing Home in the Ekbalpore area on Thursday morning. She was produced before the Alipore court and remanded in police custody till October 25.

The woman has been charged with murder. The pillow she used to smother the child and the infant’s clothes have been sent for forensic examination, police said.

“The mother told the nursing home staff that she wanted a son and was heartbroken when the girl was born. We registered a case but could not arrest her immediately as she was weak. The woman was kept under watch at the nursing home,” a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The child was born around 7 am on Tuesday. Singh allegedly smothered the baby sometime between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Her husband, Ajay Singh, who was present at the nursing home, claimed before the police that he wasn’t aware of the crime. Police officers said he is being questioned.

The matter came to light on Wednesday morning when the nurses found the infant’s lifeless body.

“The resident doctor declared the baby dead. The infant had no complication till Tuesday night,” Jamaluddin Shams, director of the nursing home, said on Wednesday.

Police suspect that the woman’s husband, who left the nursing home for an hour on Wednesday morning to have food, may have known about the crime.