E-Paper
Rajasthan cops solve infant’s mysterious death, say mother smothered him
The police said that while the medical report suggesting that the infant was smothered came a day after the child’s death, they waited for a psychiatric evaluation of his mother before announcing it.
Almost two and half months after a one-year-old boy in Pali, about 300 km Southeast of Jaipur, died under mysterious circumstances, police on Sunday said the infant was smothered by his mother.
Granth died on June 21 in Odyogik Shetra area of Pali district. Amid a marital discord, the infant’s parents had accused each other of killing him. Devendra Singhadiya (40) filed a police case against his wife Maya Singhadiya (36) for killing the child.
Pali superintendent of police Anand Sharma said that Granth was smothered.
“The medical report said that Granth died of smothering. He was either smothered with a piece of cloth or pillow,” he said. The report had been declared shortly after Granth’s death but the police did not disclose it earlier because it could have affected the investigation, particularly after Maya’s family members admitted her to a hospital claiming that she suffered from psychiatric disorder.
Maya was kept under examination of a panel of three psychiatrists in a government hospital in Jodhpur for almost one and a half month where she was psychologically evaluated.
The police waited for the report of the panel. On Wednesday police received the medical report of Maya which said, “Maya Sinhadiya is not suffering from any mental illness. She is fit for police questioning.”
Sharma said that during the investigation they also found that Maya had beaten her son for twice in the past and had also thrown him on the floor.
“God knows why she did that. A team of police has been rushed to her parental home from where she would be detained and later interrogated,” the SP said.
On June 22, after the child’s last rites when police went to record Maya’s statement, she had refused to oblige citing emotional breakdown.
Devendra’s statement was recorded the next day after the incident.
Devendra had registered a first information report (FIR) with the Odyogik Nagar police saying that when he returned from morning walk on June 21, Maya did not open the door of their room even after 20 minutes of knocking. Later, when she opened the door, he saw their son lying still on the bed and immediately took him to a hospital, where he was declared brought dead by doctors.
Devendra also alleged that Maya had been harassing his parents for the last two months and because of her they could not celebrate Granth’s first birthday.
In the evening, Maya also visited the police station and charged her husband of killing their son.
Devendra, an engineer, married Maya two years ago. It was his second marriage. He used to work in Bengaluru but shifted to his home town Pali in 2008 and started working in a pharmaceutical company.
He divorced his first wife in 2016 and married Maya, a native of Bikaner who holds a postgraduate degree in Arts and graduation degree in education, on April 5, 2017. Granth was born on June 4, 2018.
