Tired of constant pestering of her mother-in-law on how to bring up her newborn daughter, a young mother allegedly abandoned her 25-day-old baby girl at a garbage dump near her house in East Delhi’s New Vinod Nagar area.

The injured baby girl was found by police and rushed to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital in Kalyanpuri, said officials, adding that since the baby had sustained a fracture in her skull, she was referred to the Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital where the child died on February 22.

The mother has been arrested and sent to judicial custody. The shocking incident came to light after the woman, identified as Neha Tiwari (25), informed police that she was fed up of listening to her mother-in-law on how to take care of the newborn. Police said during interrogation Neha seemed psychologically disturbed.

Confirming the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Omvir Singh Bishnoi said, “The incident was reported on February 21 around 7.30 pm when a woman complained that someone stole her baby girl. Considering the sensitivity of the matter, our teams started searching for the infant. A few meters from where the woman lived, locals informed us that they heard a baby crying from the dhalao (garbage heap).”

The senior police officer said on checking the spot, we found the baby girl.

A senior police officer, privy to the investigation told The Pioneer, “Initially, we had registered a case of kidnapping. We suspected that the infant was picked up by someone and left behind at the garbage site.

“However, after questioning more than a hundred locals and on the statement of a 13-year-old boy, it was found that the boy spotted a woman wearing a red gown with the baby girl.

On questioning the woman, identified as Neha Tiwari, she feigned ignorance and claimed that she was on the second floor of the residence at the time of the incident.”

“It was only on sustained interrogation that Neha broke down and confessed to dumping her baby at the garbage site. Neha accused her mother-in-law of constantly taunting her for not taking proper care of the child. Enraged with these comments, Neha picked up and dumped the baby,” said the officer.

Police said that on Wednesday evening, Neha, in a moment of anger picked up the baby and went out. She did this when her husband and her mother-in-law had gone out of the house to buy groceries from the nearby market. Moreover, Neha confessed that she took advantage of the darkness and left the house, and locked it from outside.

Narrating the sequence of events, the senior officer said, “After throwing away the baby, Neha was on her way towards home when her husband, Saurabh Tiwari and his mother returned. Neha then cooked up a story that the baby girl is missing and she went out to find the infant.”

Following which they made a call to the Police Control Room.

The family of the woman told us that they hailed from Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh.

“Neha had been married with Saurabh Tiwari for nearly two years. They welcomed their first child last month, following which their parents, belonging from Kanpur, came down to Delhi to help Neha with the baby girl,” said a relative, requesting anonymity.