The Mumbai police have arrested a 36-year-old woman for allegedly killing her three-month-old daughter. Police said the mother had allegedly killed the baby by drowning her in a water tank.
Police said the arrested accused mother has been identified as Sapna Bajrang Magdoom 36, a resident of Sangharsh Sadan, Ferbunder, Mumbai. Sapna first made up a story of her baby having being kidnapped by a woman who came to her place to exchange old mobile phones in return for a plastic bucket, police claimed. “Sapna had claimed the woman used a handkerchief laced with chloroform to render her unconscious and kidnapped the baby,” said the police officer.
The Kalachowkie police had registered a kidnapping case and formed teams to trace the abductor, on the basis of the CCTV footage. “While local police were trying to scrutinise the CCTV footage, they had also prepared a sketch of the woman. She was detained but no clue or lead was found. Meanwhile, the Mumbai crime branch Unit 3 was suspicious over the kidnapping of a baby girl, which is very uncommon. The crime branch sleuths detained the mother and she revealed about the killing of her daughter,” said a police officer from the crime branch.
Investigation revealed that Sapna had an older daughter, born in 2013. "She later had two abortions and recently gave birth to the baby girl, who was three months and 15 days old at the time of the incident. Sapna had claimed her in-laws were taunting her for having given birth to a baby girl. She was depressed about this and claims to have taken this step as the new arrival had disturbed the family peace. When her husband went to work, she put the baby in the water tank. The infant drowned as she shut the lid on the tank,” said a police officer.
Vijay Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone 4 confirmed the arrest of the mother, saying, “We have registered a case against her under section 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing dissapperance of evidence) of the Indian penal code. We recovered the infant's dead body and sent her for post mortem. The woman was arrested and further investigation is going on,” added Patil.
