Hyderabad: Mother kills her newborn in a bucket of water minutes after birth

Hyderabad: A 22-year-old woman allegedly drowned her newborn child in a bucket of water minutes after the delivery at a private hospital here, police said on Tuesday.

A preliminary inquiry by police has revealed that the woman, who belongs to Khammam district in Telangana, is unmarried.

She joined the private hospital as a lab technician last week and was around six months' pregnant, they said.

"The hospital was not aware that she was pregnant," Inspector, Raidurgam police station, D Durga Prasad said.

On Sunday, she was in evening shift. At around 1.30 am yesterday, some hospital workers heard the cries of a baby from a washroom in the premises.

A senior manager of the hospital and two other nurses reached the spot and through a gap in the washroom's door they saw the woman allegedly drowning the baby in the bucket of water, a police officer said.

They immediately open the door by force and found the baby dead in the bucket, he said.

The woman also had heavy bleeding following the delivery and was admitted to the same hospital for treatment, he said.

A case under IPC section 302 (murder) has been registered against the woman, he said adding that she will be questioned.

Police said they suspect that the woman did not want to have the baby as she is unmarried.