COIMBATORE: Two days after the body of a newborn boy was found in an abandoned well, two women were arrested in Negamam on Sunday night for allegedly delivering it at their home and killing it.
According to police, the arrested were Bhuvaneshwari (47) from Ayyappan Koil Street in Negamam and her elder sister Poovathi alias Ammani (62) from the same locality. Another suspect M Vidhya Gowri (27), Bhuvaneshwari’s daughter, who gave birth to the child, has been admitted in Pollachi Government Hospital.
Following an alert about foul smell from an abandoned well in Mettuvavi village on Friday night, police retrieved a gunny bag and found the body of a newborn boy. A case was booked and an investigation was launched. In the course of the investigation, locals told police that they heard the cries of a baby from the women’s house at around 8 pm on Friday and they said Vidhya Gowri seemed to be pregnant. But when the police inquired the family, they said that she was not pregnant, but had a tumour in her stomach and was admitted at the hospital. Police visited the hospital and found out that she was admitted for post-pregnancy treatment and she had given birth to a boy on Friday night.
“After getting divorce in 2021, Gowri stayed with her parents in Mettuvavi and was in a relationship with a man from the village. When she got pregnant, her family told others that she had a tumour in her stomach. She gave birth to a boy at her house on Friday at around 8 pm. Her mother Bhuvaneshwari and Ammani performed the delivery in the bathroom.
The child started crying and to prevent him from screaming, they wrapped him in a cloth tightly and held it for around two hours. When they opened it at around 11 pm, the child was motionless, following which they put the child in a bag and threw it inside the well,” police said. Following their statements, police on Sunday altered the case to Sections 304 (ii) (If act is done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death, etc) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence or giving false information to screen offender) of IPC.