Six cases of ‘unnatural’ deaths of female infants as young as four days were altered to murder by special teams formed by the Superintendent of Police Asra Garg here.
The cases, registered under Section 174 of the IPC, were re-registered under Section 302 after a reinvestigation revealed infanticide.
All unnatural female infant deaths will be subject to autopsy. All primary health centres and panchayat heads have been asked by the SP’s office to issue alerts for unnatural female infant deaths.
The reinvestigation covered three cases of female infanticide in 2013, two in 2011, and one in 2012. Among them were the death by poisoning of an eight-day-old at Krishnapuram in 2012; the strangulation of a four-day-old baby girl at Karimangalam in 2011; and poisoning of a three-and-a-half-year-old girl at Morappur in 2011.
In 2013, a one-and-a-half-month-old baby girl died of poisoning at Madhikonpalayam; a seven-day-old baby girl was poisoned at Paapireddypatty; and a three-and-a-half-month-old baby was killed by her father at Kambainallur.
In some cases, cactus milk was used for poisoning. Mothers and grandmothers were allegedly involved in four cases, and fathers were involved in two.
According to Mr. Garg, a moot point was a case at Thoppur, where a woman was found hanging in her house. The reinvestigation revealed that the woman was poisoned by her husband and strung up. “This was two months ago, when we felt that there must be many more cases like this. This led to the reopening of the cases of female infant deaths,” he said.
Then all police stations were asked to reopen all the cases filed under Section 174. Four special teams were formed under an Inspector, with each team attached to six police stations.
“It is painstaking to go through the case diaries afresh. This also means there were lapses on the part of some officers. We will initiate departmental action against them,” Mr. Garg said. On Wednesday, the police converted the death of a 20-year-old woman, whose body was found in a well, to that of murder and arrested a 31-year-old man for murdering her for spurning his advances at Paapaarapatty in 2010. Similarly, at A. Pallipalli, the 2009 death of a 17-year-old girl was altered to gang-rape and murder recently, and the accused were arrested.
These may increase the number of crimes against women on the records of the State Crime Records Bureau and strengthen the call for a revision of the cases of suicides and unnatural deaths across districts.
Since 2002, 1,344 baby girls have been left at the government cradle centre. “Earlier, it was 140-150 babies a year, with a monthly arrival rate of 10-15. Now, it has come down to 30-40 a year, with just 3-4 a month. Consequently, the sex ratio has also increased from 845 to 869 in the district,” says Collector K. Vivekanandan. He has planned a high-level meeting with line departments and panchayat representatives to discuss measures to protect girl children after the reinvestigation.
