A 22-year-old domestic worker has been arrested for allegedly suffocating her newborn baby boy to death and disposing of the body in a garbage bin in Chennai's Kilpauk area, police said.
The incident came to light after local residents spotted the body of a newborn wrapped in a plastic rice sack inside a garbage bin on Thyagappa Street and alerted the authorities. Police reached the spot, recovered the body and sent it to a government hospital for a post-mortem examination.
During the investigation, police examined CCTV footage from the area, which allegedly showed a young woman disposing of the sack in the garbage bin during the early hours of the morning. Based on the footage, officers traced the woman to a nearby house where she worked as a domestic helper and took her into custody.
According to the police, the woman, who is from Thanjavur district, allegedly confessed during questioning that she had been in a relationship with a man from her hometown for six years and became pregnant in October last year. She reportedly concealed the pregnancy from her family and did not seek medical assistance during the period.
Police said she went into labour on the night of July 27 and delivered the baby boy in the bathroom of the house where she was employed. Investigators alleged that she killed the newborn out of fear that the child's cries would reveal the secret birth to members of the household and neighbours.
She allegedly wrapped the baby's body in a plastic rice sack and disposed of it in a roadside garbage bin in the early hours of July 28 when the area was relatively deserted.
Police have registered a case and arrested the woman. Investigators are also questioning four other people — three women and one man — to determine whether anyone else was aware of the pregnancy or had any involvement in the incident.
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