The Kerala police have arrested and remanded a woman, her partner, and another male friend in connection with the death of a newborn in Kerala’s Alappuzha district. The child’s mother Sona Joji (22), her boyfriend Thomas Joseph (24), and his friend Asok Joseph were taken into custody by the Poochakkal police for allegedly abandoning the newborn. Sona is currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Ernakulam.
The woman had come under the police radar after she was admitted to a hospital with abdominal pain, and the doctors realised she had recently given birth without medical support. The police later recovered the newborn’s body, which was buried in Thakazhi in the Kuttanad region, on Sunday, August 11.
According to reports, Sona had not informed her family about her pregnancy and had given birth at her home on August 7. When she was questioned by the police at the hospital, she named her boyfriend and his friend, whom she claimed to have handed over the child to a day after the delivery. As per the First Information Report (FIR), when she gave the baby to her boyfriend, the intention was to hand the child over to an Ammathottil – a child welfare facility functioning under the state government.
The police took the two men into custody as per Sona’s statement. Sources told TNM that the autopsy report of the newborn was yet to be released, due to which there is still no clarity on the cause of the child’s death.
The police have booked the accused under sections 93 (abandonment of a child by parent or person having care of it) and 3 (5) (the criminal act is done by several persons with common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), and 75 (cruelty to Child) of Juvenile Justice (Care And Protection Of Children) Act.