Police investigate suspected strangulation of newborn in Madhya Pradesh hospital

Police in Madhya Pradesh’s Ashoknagar are investigating the suspected strangulation of a newborn girl inside a hospital’s Special Newborn Care Unit, officials said on Sunday. The baby was born at about 11.50 p.m. on Friday and was admitted to the unit shortly afterwards, according to Kotwali police Station House Officer Ravipratap Singh Chauhan.

She was found dead between 3 and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Chauhan said the child’s mother and grandmother were present at the unit.

Police strongly suspect that one of them was involved, with investigators’ suspicion focused more heavily on the mother, he said. No arrest was reported in the source material. A doctor who carried out the post-mortem found marks around the baby’s neck that indicated strangulation, sources said.

The autopsy report had not yet been received. Police are recording statements and gathering evidence to identify the person responsible and establish the motive. Investigators said the child was the third female child in the extended family.

Police are examining whether the family’s circumstances and the fact that the newborn was a girl were connected to the death, but the investigation remains ongoing. There were no CCTV cameras inside the Special Newborn Care Unit, meaning investigators did not have footage of the incident, sources said. The absence of recordings leaves police reliant on witness accounts, statements and other evidence collected at the hospital.

The source material also cited official figures showing that Madhya Pradesh recorded 12 cases of infanticide in 2023, out of 67 reported nationally. It recorded 20 cases of foeticide and 140 cases of newborn abandonment that year, according to the cited report. Those figures do not establish any connection to the Ashoknagar case.