An 18-day-old girl child in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore was abandoned by her father in bushes as he did not want another daughter. The Indore police, however, recovered the child within three hours and handed her back to the mother. Medically, the infant’s condition is good, police sources said.
The incident occurred in Hira Nagar of Indore on Thursday. The father, Rohit Yadav, a computer operator in a private firm, has confessed to the crime. A case has been registered against Yadav, in-charge of Hira Nagar police station, P.L. Sharma told THE WEEK.
Sharma said that the mother of the infant, Anita, was working outside and when she returned home, she found the baby missing. Anita called the police who launched a search for the child.
While scanning the CCTV, the cops found Yadav leaving the house with a big bag. Finding his actions suspicious, the police interrogated him in detail.
Yadav first feigned ignorance about his missing daughter and said that he had taken the bag to bring some things from the market. However, a stole of the infant was found in the bag and the baby’s mother confirmed that she had been wrapped in the stole on Thursday.
After further interrogation, Yadav confessed to have taken away his daughter and abandoned her in bushes near the under-construction new airport on Sanver Road. He said that he did not want another girl since the couple already has a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
The police recovered the baby in good health from the spot and handed her over to her mother.
Earlier, in January this year, a man in Betul of Madhya Pradesh killed his newborn son, apparently because he wanted a daughter. The newborn boy was the third child of the accused, both the elder children being boys aged seven and five years.
The accused Anil Uikey, a resident of Bajarwada under Padhar police post, was reportedly in an inebriated condition when he strangled his 12-day-old son to death. He was arrested by the Betul police.
According to the Crimes in India report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), in the year 2022, a total 83 cases of infanticide (killing of children below 1 year of age) were reported in the country, of which 11 were in Madhya Pradesh. Similarly, 104 children were killed before being born (foeticide) in the country, five among them in Madhya Pradesh.
