Woman, partner held in connection with death of infant in Kochi

The Elamakkara police on Tuesday arrested a woman and her live-in partner on charge of killing her one-and-a-half-month-old baby boy.

The duo, Aswathy of Eramaloor, Alappuzha, and Shanif of Kannur were taken into custody after the post-mortem report of the infant showed a crack in the skull.

Pattern of injury

The pattern of injury was very different from what could happen if the baby fell from the hand of the mother, something which the duo had claimed, said a police officer probing the case.

They had taken the baby to Ernakulam General Hospital on Sunday, where he was declared brought dead. The duo had reportedly told the doctors that the baby fell unconscious after he was fed and had gone to sleep. When confronted with the post-mortem report, they changed testimony and said he fell from the mother’s hands, said the police.

Shanif had reportedly planned to kill the child soon after his birth and had been causing injuries to him, said the police. Post-mortem findings indicate that the child’s ribs were broken.

On Sunday night, he reportedly slammed the child’s head against his knee, causing severe head injury leading to the death, said the police.

It is suspected that Aswathy didn’t try to prevent the murder, neither did she report it, according to the police.

Shanif is also learnt to have bit the child to check if he had died, said the police.

The police, which initially registered the case as unnatural death, later altered the FIR to add IPC sections 302 (murder), 34 (common intention) and relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act.

The police say Aswathy had reportedly met Shanif on social media and began living together. The baby is claimed to be from another relationship that Aswathy had and the duo quarrelled over that, said the police.