Jaipur: Mother arrested for killing four-month-old daughter

A woman has been arrested for allegedly slitting her four-month-old daughter's throat and killing her in Rajasthan's Jaipur city.

The incident took place on August 26 when the woman killed her daughter and hid the body in an air conditioner cabin.

"We started a detailed investigation on the same day as it is a joint family of 35 members. After going through the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report, examining the CCTV footage and interrogating many family members besides neighbours, we have arrived to the conclusion that it was the mother who killed her own child. She has confessed to the crime as well," said Anshuman Bhomia, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North).

The accused Neha Goyal, who hails from an affluent family, admitted to having killed her daughter and raising an alarm around two hours later, saying the baby had disappeared.

The DCP said that the motive was quite clear to them. Although the accused had deleted all her mobile history, the cops were able to recover it with the help of a cyber expert. They discovered that the woman had visited a lot of websites pertaining to conceiving a male child as she already had an eight-year old daughter. She had also tried IVF, surrogacy and IUI as well as visited priests.

"Another event which might have added on to the motive could be that the baby was having fits and the mother thought that she might be mentally disabled eventually. Although just like a seasoned criminal, she kept following up with the police to play the innocent card," Bhomia told ANI.

The police have recovered the knife, which was used to commit the murder. They have also taken into evidence the traces of blood on the mother's hands even though she claimed to not having touched the body. Blood traces have also been recovered from the bathroom where the murder weapon was washed. There has been no evidence of the father's involvement in the murder or the involvement of anyone else from the family yet.