Police in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu have exhumed the body of a one-month-old girl child after a doctor became suspicious about the baby’s death and raised an alarm. Speaking to TNM, an official at Gurubarapalli police station said the child was exactly one month and three days old when she died on the morning of November 20.

“ The parents claimed that the child asphyxiated while feeding and passed away. A doctor at the Kaveripattinam Community Health Centre where the baby was born, was suspicious of the claim made by parents and tipped us off. Moreover, this is the couple’s second girl child, which made her death seem even more suspicious to the doctor,” the official said.

Acting on the tip off, the police approached the tahsildar for permission and exhumed the child’s body on Tuesday, November 21, in the presence of local officials including the district collector, police said. The post-mortem examination is currently underway at the government general  hospital in Krishnagiri town.

Police also told TNM that the mother had returned to her family’s house in Chinna Muthur village after the child’s birth on October 16.  The child had been buried in the backyard of the mother’s family home. 

The postmortem report is expected later this week, based on which the police will take action. The mother is a housewife and the father works as an engineering supervisor for a private firm in Chennai.