Kochi: The police probing the death of a newborn at Panampilly Nagar here has charged the baby’s mother – an unwed 23-year-old woman – with murder. The male child was thrown out onto the road from the woman’s flat on the fifth floor of an apartment complex.

According to police, the parents of the young woman, who lived in the same flat, were unaware of her pregnancy and delivery. The woman delivered the baby in the early hours of Friday in her apartment bathroom and allegedly threw the newborn to the street three hours after she gave birth to the baby boy. The body of the newborn was found wrapped in a parcel cover by cleaning workers of the city.

The woman has been slapped with IPC Section 302 which deals with punishment for murder. Reports said the postmortem of the newborn revealed that severe head injury could have caused the death.
Though the police suspect the possibility of rape in the case, no case has been registered on that matter.

“We have to ascertain how did the girl got impregnated. A decision on registering a separate case on charges of rape will be taken only after that,” a police officer told Onmanorama.
The woman was admitted to a government hospital here after her arrest was recorded. She will be shifted to jail after her health condition improves.
Earlier in the day, City Police Commissioner S Syamsundar had told reporters that the police suspected that the girl was subjected to rape and it will be investigated.