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Odisha mother kills twin babies by throwing them into well, arrested
Ramakanta Mahalik, sub divisional police officer of Angul, said the accused and her husband didn’t have a child for several years
A young mother allegedly murdered her twin three-month-old babies in Odisha’s Angul district by throwing them into a well, the police said.
Tapaswini Sahu, 27, was arrested on Thursday, a day after she threw her twin boy and girl into the well at the back of their house in Mundadhipi Sahi of Basala village. The twins, born on October 11, were the first children of the woman and Sunil, a smalltime trader.
According to the police, on Wednesday evening the woman went out to buy milk while her kids were sleeping. By the time she came back, the babies were not there. After a frantic search by the family and their neighbours, the bodies of the babies were found floating in the well. Locals rushed them to the Bantala community health centre, but doctors declared them dead on arrival. The bodies were then taken to the district headquarters hospital for an autopsy. The woman confessed to the murder to her husband on Thursday morning.
Ramakanta Mahalik, sub divisional police officer of Angul, said the accused and her husband didn’t have a child for several years. The couple finally went for IVF, post which Tapaswini gave birth to the twins.
“Over the last few days, Tapaswini was mentally disturbed and also had some health complications. During questioning, she admitted to killing her twins. The sequence of events that culminated in the killing suggests that it was triggered by post-natal depression. Her family members had observed this for a few days. In the absence of family members, she dumped the twins into the well leading to their death. Based on prima facie evidence, we have arrested her,” the SDPO said.
The sister-in-law of the accused said over the last few days she complained of fatigue as the babies would cry the whole night, and she often spoke about ending her life. “She sometimes said the babies were not hers. We did not take it seriously then,” the sister-in-law said.
