MADURAI: After suspicions of female infanticide were raised in the death of a fortnight-old baby, the child’s body was exhumed for an autopsy on Friday.
According to sources, the preliminary autopsy report confirmed ‘an internal contusion in the head of the baby girl’.
However, the sources added the actual cause of death would be revealed only in the final report. The child had died under mysterious circumstance at Kunchampatti under Usilampatti block.
According to the police, Jeyachandran, an auto driver, admitted his wife Jeyapriya to a primary health centre in Thottappanayakkanur, where she delivered a baby on November 4. The couple already has a four-year-old daughter.
"The mother and the baby were healthy. On November 6, Jeyapriya absconded from the hospital with the baby, along with the case sheets," Block Medical Officer M Susila said.
On November 19, Jeyachandran and Jeyapriya took an allegedly ill newborn to a private hospital at Usilampatti, where the doctors declared her ‘dead on arrival’.
The parents reportedly took the child to another hospital, where also the same diagnosis was made; the baby was then taken to government Usilampatti hospital.
"One of the doctors of the private hospital alerted me about the incident. I alerted the government Usilampatti hospital about the case. However, the parents did not take the newborn to the hospital as advised," said Susila.
"The next day morning (November 20), when I visited the mother’s house at Kunchapatti, I learnt that the body of the baby had been buried in front of the house. I then alerted the Usilampatti taluk police."