18-day-old baby girl murdered

‘Apparently, it was not an accidental fall and someone threw the baby in the drum’

An 18-day-old baby girl was found murdered in the house at SV Colony in Nacharam on Monday.

The body of the baby was found inside a four-feet-high water drum in the morning.

No wounds

There were no wounds on the infant’s body.

“Apparently, it was not an accidental fall and someone threw the baby in the drum which had nearly three feet deep water,” the Nacharam Inspector, S. Ashok Kumar, said.

A housewife, Vijaya Laxmi, 20, gave birth to the baby on November 16 in a private hospital. Five days later, she came to the house of her parents.

A resident of SV Colony, Laxmi fell in love with a painter Venkat Reddy of the same locality. They married outside their castes even as elders of both the families opposed it.

On Monday morning, Laxmi, her mother and elder brother’s wife were in the house.

Frantic search

Around 10 a.m., Laxmi began frantically searching for her baby stating that she was missing.

While she raised a hue and cry, the house owner living on the first floor too came downstairs. A few minutes later, the house owner found the infant inside the drum.

Investigation on

The investigators ruled out the possibility of outsiders barging into the house and killing the baby. “Surely one of the three women, including the infant’s mother, could be behind the baby’s murder. But we’re yet to ascertain who did it and the motive behind it,” they said.