Police prevent a newly-born girl from being buried alive in Hyderabad

The infant, a girl, was about to be buried at a secluded place behind the Jubilee Bus Station when an auto-rickshaw driver, who was attending the nature’s call, noticed them and alerted the police.

Police in Hyderabad are questioning two men and an old woman after they allegedly tried to bury alive a four-day-old infant in Secunderabad on Thursday, officials said.

Police said the baby’s grandfather told them the infant had some defect in her genitals and doctors in Karimnagar had referred her to Niloufer Hospital for Children in Hyderabad for better treatment.(HT file)

The infant, a girl, was about to be buried at a secluded place behind the Jubilee Bus Station when an auto-rickshaw driver, who was attending the nature’s call, noticed them and alerted the police.

“Our constable S Venkata Ramakrishna, along with another cop, rushed there and found a young man was digging a pit, while a middle-aged man holding the infant wrapped in a towel standing beside him. An old woman was standing at a distance,” West Marredpally police inspector A Srinivasulu said while speaking to HT.

“When they questioned the man, he said the infant was dead and hence, they were burying her,” Srinivasulu said.

The constable insisted that he wanted to take a close look at the infant and found that the baby was moving.

“They immediately took the trio into custody and shifted the baby to Gandhi Hospital, where she is recuperating in the incubator at an Intensive Care Unit,” Srinivasulu said.

Enquiries revealed that the middle-aged man was her grandfather, the woman the great grandmother and the young man digging the pit was their acquaintance in their village.

“The baby’s father Raju and mother Manasa are daily labourers from Sankepalli village of Vemulawada block in Siricilla district. The infant was her first child. Manasa, who delivered the baby at a hospital in Karimnagar town on October 28, suffered from epilepsy and is under treatment,” the inspector said.

Police said the baby’s grandfather told them the infant had some defect in her genitals and doctors in Karimnagar had referred her to Niloufer Hospital for Children in Hyderabad for better treatment.

“The doctors at Niloufer suggested that the infant should be operated upon and asked them to come back after a couple of days when the date for surgery would be fixed,” the inspector said.

The grandfather felt that there was no movement in the infant while they were returning to the bus station in an auto-rickshaw from the hospital, he said.

“He thought the baby was dead. He told us that he decided to bury the body in Hyderabad itself since he was afraid the baby’s mother might collapse on seeing the body,” he said.

Srinivasulu did not rule out the possibility that the infant was being buried alive because she was a girl.

“We are questioning them in that angle as well. However, we are yet to book any case. An investigation is on,” the inspector said.