Day after newborn's body found in bin, police nab 22-yr-old woman on murder charges

CHENNAI: Police have arrested a 22-year-old woman, a domestic worker, in connection with the case in which the body of a newborn boy was recovered from a garbage bin in Kilpauk on Tuesday.

She murdered the child and disposed of the body as she feared that she would be condemned for having a child out of wedlock, the probe revealed.

The infant's body, wrapped in a sack, was found in the early hours of July 28 near a Corporation school on Thyagappa Street, Kilpauk. Based on CCTV footage, police identified the woman -- Priyanka (22) of Kumbakonam, who had joined as domestic help at the Kilpauk house on the same street on July 12.

According to police, Priyanka had met a youth from Tirunelveli through Instagram and was in a relationship with him, which later ended. She then reportedly entered into a relationship with another youth from her native place. Police said she became pregnant in October last year but concealed it from her family and did not go for any medical check-ups either.

On the night of July 27, Priyanka developed labour pain and delivered a boy alone in the house's bathroom. When the newborn began crying, she allegedly pressed his mouth and nose with her hands out of fear that someone would hear, causing the infant to die of suffocation, police said.

In panic, Priyanka reportedly placed the body in a plastic rice sack found in the house and, in the early hours, dumped it in the nearby garbage bin without anyone noticing.

Police arrested Priyanka on charges of murder and disposal of the body.

Police are also questioning three of Priyanka's female friends and one male friend who allegedly advised her to dump the body in the bin.

Further investigation is under way.