india

Updated: Jul 24, 2019 08:48 IST

A three-month-old infant died after his mother threw him from the fourth floor of the neo-natal intensive care unit at the King George Medical University (KGMU) trauma centre here on Tuesday morning, police said.

Police said initial probe suggested the woman was upset over her child’s illness since his birth.

The infant was diagnosed with jaundice soon after his birth at the BRD hospital in Gorakhpur on April 23. The doctors there referred him to the KGMU after his liver condition deteriorated two months back.

Spokesperson of KGMU Dr Sandip Tiwari said the child was under treatment for jaundice since May 26 and was recovering. He said the statements of the hospital staff and others suggested that the child’s mother was upset with his continued illness. He said the infant was preterm and weighed just a kilogram at birth.

Additional superintendent of police (ASP) Vikas Chandra Tripathi said the incident was reported to the police when Shanti Devi, 27, raised an alarm that her child had been stolen from the hospital.

“The woman was rigorously quizzed as there were multiple contradictions in her statements. Moreover, she had been spotted carrying the child in her lap at around 5 am in the CCTV footage inside the trauma centre building. She later confessed to have thrown the child from the window of the neo-natal intensive care unit on the fourth floor as she was deeply troubled with his suffering,” Tripathi said.

The officer said the woman had been arrested for murder and concealment of crime on the complaint of her husband Rajan Singh. He said the child’s body has been sent for post-mortem examination.