The 23-year-old woman accused of smothering her newborn baby and hurling the body wrapped in a plastic cover on the road from her apartment at Panamppilly Nagar in Kochi in Kerala was shifted from the General Hospital, Ernakulam to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a private hospital in Kochi on May 3 midnight after her health deteriorated.
She was kept under medical observation in the general hospital overnight on May 3 considering her fragile health after having delivered the baby only in the morning. However, she reportedly developed complications around midnight and was shifted to a private hospital. She remains admitted in the ICU and is under the care of the Gynaecology department, said hospital sources.
The turn of events has further delayed the police formalities and her interrogation. The accused will now be questioned based only on medical reports regarding her fitness to undergo interrogation.
In a state of shock
“She continues to be in a state of shock and the consequences of her action seems yet to sink in. She faces imprisonment as it is an open-and-shut case with the post-mortem examination attributing the cause of death to smothering,” said police sources.
The police had arrested the woman and registered a case of murder on May 3. The initial charge of murder was validated after the autopsy report that emerged later in the evening confirmed it. It was also reported that the accused was a rape survivor. The police may take a call on the alleged rape only after getting more clarity on it based on the woman’s interrogation.
Preliminary investigation of the police had absolved the parents of any wrongdoing and this was corroborated by the accused as well in her statement.
According to the police, the parents were aware neither of her pregnancy nor the delivery and of her alleged act of hurling away the body of the newborn. In fact, the parents were initially among those who had gathered in the commotion after the discovery of the baby’s body on the road.
The woman reportedly delivered the baby in the bathroom of her room, which she had locked from inside, around 5 a.m. on May 3. She allegedly strangled the baby, wrapped the body in a cover and threw it from the balcony adjoining her room after three hours. The police forensic team later discovered bloodstains from her bathroom despite her attempts to wash it away.
A magistrate turned up at the hospital and completed the remand proceedings on Saturday afternoon. Though she has been remanded to judicial custody, she will remain at the hospital till certified as medically fit.
