NEW DELHI: A 26-year-old woman has been arrested in connection with the murder of her two-month-old daughter whose body was found inside a microwave oven in south Delhi's Chirag Dilli area, police said on Tuesday.
The accused, Dimple, a resident of Chirag Dilli, was found unconscious in her house on Monday, with the body of her infant daughter inside an oven on the second floor of the house.
A key suspect in the baby's death, the woman has been giving inconsistent statements since her arrest, said police.
"She seems to be disturbed," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (south) Benita Mary Jaiker, adding that she has been interrogated twice, Monday night and Tuesday morning.
The incident that took place Monday shocked the entire neighbourhood, which looked for the child all over the place, before finding her dead inside in an oven inside her own home.
"We received a missing report of a child on Monday around 4.30 pm," said Jaiker. "When our staff reached the house of the family, it was revealed that the infant had been found and shifted to Madan Mohan Malaviya Hospital. We reached the hospital. There we were told she was declared brought dead."
Later, police spoke to the family, including the baby's mother, father, her uncle, grandmother, and also a few neighbours. There were a lot of people present at the spot when the girl was found, the DCP said. The post mortem of the child was conducted on Tuesday.
Prima facie, the doctors have conjectured that the child was smothered, and might have died a day earlier, and not Monday when she was found. But, Jaiker said, the exact cause of death can only be ascertained after the post mortem report. The infant had injury marks on her body when she was found, she said.
"It is clearly found that the victim was in her mother's custody. All circumstantial evidence point towards the mother. We have no reason to believe that she was not involved," Jaiker said.
As of now, no other person has been found involved in the incident. The body was put inside the oven in order to hide it from others, police said. The family has a general store and a stationary shop on the ground floor of the house.
Both are run by the child's father and his two brothers, police said, adding that the woman had got married around 6-7 years ago.
On Monday, a two-month-old baby was found dead inside a microwave oven by a neighbour, police had said. Her mother was found inside their house unconscious, and her three-year-old son crying.
According to the neighbours, the uncle of the child was the first person who started looking for the girl, who found the child missing when he broke the glass and entered the house.
He was afraid for the child when her mother did not open the door despite him knocking several times, said police.
A neighbour on Monday had told reporters that he was woken up by the commotion in the area which broke out when the woman did not open the door.
"We broke the glass and entered the room. We found the woman lying unconscious inside and the child missing." We checked all over the area, but could not find her. Later, two-three more persons came and they checked a room where an oven was placed, they found the child inside," the neighbour had said.
Another neighbour said that after scouring the area for some time, a few of them reached the second floor of the house, where they found a room which was unbolted.
"They entered the room and found the child inside a microwave oven," he said, adding that they then informed the police about the incident. "We are still ascertaining the reason behind the incident," said police.