Ranchi: A woman in Jharkhand left the body of her deceased baby girl, who was born with congenital heart ailments on a road, police said.
The incident took place in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad district on Wednesday but was reported to the media on Friday.
Authorities said she had no money to perform the child’s last rites.
The woman, identified as Dolly, had delivered a baby girl at a private hospital about three days before, but was told the baby had heart problems.
This prompted the woman to stay at the hospital for the treatment of her baby.
Reports said the hospital was changing Rs8,000 (Dh397) per day for treating the newborn.
When her money ran out, the mother urged the hospital to release them.
On Wednesday, the woman was returning home when the baby died.
Subsequently, she wrapped the body in a plastic sheet and dumped it along the road before heading straight to her home.
Police traced the woman on the basis of plastic sheet with logo of the hospital.
During interrogation, she told officers that she had run into debt as the hospital was charging heavy money on her baby’s treatment and she didn’t have more to perform her last rites.
“During interrogations, the woman said she dumped the body along the road to avoid further expenditure as the treatment cost had already put here under heavy debt,” local police official Nandkishore Singh told journalists on Friday.
In July this year, a woman from Ranchi district had sold her baby girl for Rs10,000, saying she was unable to bring her up on her own. The woman already had three daughters.
In November last year, a woman from Palamu district sold her newborn baby to a neighbour after failing to pay her medical bills.
Before that in July 2016, a tribal woman from Ramgarh district had sold her newborn son for Rs2,500 to buy a couple of goats with the money.