Mother kills newborn girl at hospital, cops say she did not want third daughter

New Delhi: A 32-year-old woman smothered her newborn daughter at a Delhi hospital on July 29 as she did not want a third daughter. 

According to a report, police said Reeta Devi was “out of her senses” when she killed her newborn daughter. 

Vijay Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) said, “Before the delivery, Reeta Devi had told a helper at the hospital that her husband would frequently fight with her over the birth of their other two daughters. Because of that, Devi said she did not want a girl child again.” 

Police have registered a murder case after the autopsy report confirmed that the baby was smothered and Devi was arrested. Investigators found no evidence against Devi’s husband Asharfi Mahto. 

Mahto, who works as a helper in a private firm denied all allegations about telling his wife that he wanted a male child.  “For a poor man like me, a son or a daughter does not matter,” said Mahto.

Mahto, a native of Chhapra in Bihar, lived with his wife and three children- two daughter aged nine and eight and a four-year-old son. 

Police investigations revealed that Devi was admitted to ESIC hospital in Motinagar on Saturday after experiencing labour pain. She gave birth to a healthy girl child at 3:50 am on Sunday and doctors checked both the mother and daughter at 7 am and found in good health condition.

Around 9 am Devi, raised an alarm and said the baby isn’t moving. Doctors found black marks around the kid’s nose and lips and declared the baby dead. Doctors suspected murder and informed the police about the incident. 

“The baby’s body was sent for post-mortem while the woman was kept under police supervision. There were occasions when the woman was alone in the ward and used it as an opportunity to smother and strangle her daughter,” said DCP.