Grandmother held for dumping newborn twin girls in Punjab 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.

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.

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. (HT File (Representative Image))

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.

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.