Published Sep 04, 2024 | 9:40 AM ⚊ Updated Sep 04, 2024 | 9:40 AM
Murder-Representational Image. (iStock)
Two individuals from Kerala’s Alappuzha district were arrested on 2 September in connection with the alleged murder of a newborn, including the baby’s mother. According to media reports, investigation uncovered that Asha Manoj, a married mother of two, delivered a third child – a baby boy at a private hospital in Cherthala on 26 August.
Initially, Asha claimed kept oscillating between two stories – that the baby had either been handed over to a couple in Thrippunithura or that he had been abandoned at the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare’s Ammathottil.
Asha, who is facing murder charges in the case, claimed that she was innocent and told the police that she had asked her friend Ratheesh to leave the baby at an orphanage. During interrogation, Asha explained that she felt compelled to make this decision after her husband, Manoj, denied that he was the baby’s father.
Reports indicate that Ratheesh, the second individual implicated in the case had accompanied Asha to the hospital where she gave birth, pretending to be her husband. According to reports, they were discharged on 31 August at around 11 am and the baby was healthy at that time.
According to the police, Ratheesh strangled the infant to death and then buried the body. Ratheesh admitted to the police that he had initially kept the child’s body in his bathroom and had intended to cremate it. However, before he could go through with it, the baby’s body was eventually discovered at his house.
The murder was uncovered after Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers intervened. Initially, the boy’s mother had claimed that she sold the baby to a couple in Thrippunithura, but further investigation revealed that the infant had been murdered shortly after birth.
The ASHA worker, who was tasked with educating new mothers, discovered that the baby was missing when she visited the house and reported inconsistencies in Asha’s story. The ASHA worker’s concerns led to a thorough investigation by authorities who eventually arrested the mother and her friend.
(Edited by Ananya Rao with inputs from Dileep V Kumar)
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