Family Allegedly Buries Newborn Baby Alive Claiming She Was Dead

A family in India allegedly buried a newborn alive after claiming the baby girl was dead.

The family brought the baby to a crematorium in Visakhapatnam, a city in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, on Saturday. They told the staff the baby was dead, and they wanted to carry out her final rites, Newsmeter reported.

When the staff opened the bag containing the body of the newborn, they noticed some signs of life and refused to conduct final rites. The family immediately left the scene and took the baby to a burial ground in the same city and buried the newborn, claiming she was dead.

In the meantime, the staff at the crematorium called the police and informed them about the incident. The staff told the investigators four members of a family got down from a vehicle with a bag and told them they wanted to conduct the dead baby’s last rites. The staff refused to do so after finding out the baby inside the bag was still alive.

As part of the investigation, the officers spoke to the medical officer, who said the baby was dead.

Speaking to the local daily The Times of India, a police officer said, "We have visited a nursing home and spoke to the medical officer who said a couple came to her for treatment of a five-month pregnant woman. After conducting tests, it was found that the unborn baby was suffering from Down’s Syndrome."

"The woman was operated on, and the baby was removed with the consent of the couple on August 4. The baby died on August 6 and the family buried the baby at the burial ground," the officer told the outlet.

Investigation into the incident is still ongoing.

In a similar incident in 2019, a man in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh found a newborn girl alive three feet below the ground while he was digging a pit for his dead daughter’s burial at a cremation site. The man rushed the baby to a nearby hospital for treatment.