Unwed woman held for throwing her newborn girl into hospital dustbin, killing infant in Mumbai

Mumbai: A 23-year-old woman was arrested for allegedly throwing her newborn girl into a dustbin in a civic run hospital in Mumbai, leading to her death, a police official said on Monday.

The infant was found in the dustbin bucket in a toilet of civic-run Sion Hospital by a sweeper on Friday morning and she was declared dead by doctors, he said.

"The woman took this step to hide ignominy of unwed motherhood. CCTV footage of the vicinity showed her walking suspiciously near the toilet. She was nabbed from Dharavi, where she stays, and confessed to the crime during questioning," the official said.

She has been charged under Indian Penal Code sections 315 (act done with intent to prevent child being born alive or to cause it to die after birth) and 317 (exposure of a child under 12 years of age by parent or person having care of it with intention of wholly abandoning it), he said.