In a gruesome incident, a 42-year-old woman allegedly smothered her newborn child to death and buried the body in a pit she dug in the backyard of her beachside home in nearby Anchuthengu, police said on Friday. The arrest of Juli, who confessed to the crime, was recorded on Thursday night.
The incident came to light when stray dogs pulled the decomposed body of the infant out of the pit and were found devouring it on the beach some days ago.
The woman, already a mother of a 13-year-old child, was a widow, and no one in her family knew of her pregnancy, they said. According to police, the accused experienced labour pains on July 15 night, and delivered the child at the washroom of her home in Anchuthengu, about 30 kms away from here.
"Soon after the delivery, she smothered the newborn to death, dug a pit in the backyard, and buried it. Things turned worse for her after the decomposed body parts of the baby were found on the beach," a senior officer told PTI. Her home was just a few metres away from the beach. A comprehensive probe was carried out in the coastal stretch of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, and Alappuzha to identify the accused.
"The details of at least 20 to 30 recently pregnant women were collected. Then, we received secret information from Anchuthengu about this woman," the official said. The woman was first summoned to the local police station. Initially, she denied the charges. During the detailed interrogation, she finally confessed to the crime, he said. Her husband had died 11 years ago. The arrest was recorded last night, the officer said, adding that the other details could be divulged only after a thorough investigation.