Mumbai: A day after a 22-year-old woman flung her newborn from the 17th floor of a Kandivli high-rise, police have booked her under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder and abandoning the child. Police said, she suspected her husband of having an affair and killed her newborn as he would not provide for her either. No arrest has been made, as the woman is recuperating after childbirth.
According to the neighbours, the couple got married two years ago, when the woman became pregnant. A year later, she gave birth to a second child, which is when the couple began having problems. Police said, the woman was not on speaking terms with the man after he stopped giving her money to run the house and she suspected he was having an affair. Her main concern was how to raise a third child when her husband was not supporting the family he already had, police said.
A police officer said, the woman allegedly managed to conceal her pregnancy. Whenever anyone asked her about her stomach, she brushed them off saying her bloated belly was due to gas. She did not even tell her husband or mother, who lives on the 22nd floor of the same building that she was expecting, said the officer.
On Thursday, when she was at home with her children and sister-in-law, she went into labour. But she did not tell anyone and quietly went to the bathroom for half-an-hour and delivered the baby by herself. She later asked her sister-in-law for a pair of scissors, ostensibly to cut the umbilical cord. Shortly after that, the woman threw her newborn from the bathroom window.
As the body fell, it bumped into pipes and some of them broke. The loud noise drew the attention of the residents. Police said, when she opened the door, the bathroom was filled with blood, after which the woman fell unconscious.
Kandivli Police said, the woman is recuperating from childbirth at the civic-run Shatabdi Hospital, but has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder (section 302) and abandoning a child below 12 years (section 317). No arrest will be made until the doctors declare the woman fit for discharge.
