The Sholavandan police department in Madurai district has, on Sunday, detained father and grandmother of a four-day-old female child for reportedly murdering her of what has become the yet another incident of female infanticide and it's the second such incident reported from Madurai district in two months. 

The detained were identified as Davamani (35) and his mother Pandiammal (60) and the duo had confessed that they killed the child by feeding her with the toxic milky secretion from cactus. According to the reports, Davamani's wife Chitra had given birth to a baby girl last week. 

The newborn infant was the fourth daughter of the couple. Last Thursday, the infant had died and the parents had claimed that she died due to an illness and the couple had buried the body in the banks of the Vaigai river. Upon knowing the sudden death of the infant, the neighbors went suspicious and informed the Village Administrative Officer on the sudden death following which the officer had notified the police department.

With accord to the information, the police had recovered the body from the burial spot and performed an autopsy to ascertain the cause of death. The police had taken the parents and grandmother under their custody on Saturday and during the interrogation, the father had confessed that he and his mother Pandiammal had murdered the infant by giving her the toxic secretion from cactus. 

He also stated that they killed the infant in the absence of the child's mother and she had no role in the killing of the daughter. The duo made their confessions on Sunday and claimed that they didn't want the female infant since it was the fourth girl child the couple had given birth. 

With the motive of making it as natural death, the father had informed the local health nurse on Thursday and stated that the infant had been suffering from the health problem and ten minutes later, he again called the nurse and informed her that the child had died even before taking her to the hospital following which they buried her. Madurai district had reported a similar incident in March. 

On March 2nd, a couple in Usilampatti, Madurai had killed their one-month-old baby girl. They reported poisoned her by feeding a toxic milky secretion. The couple already has a girl child and they weren't happy about giving birth to another girl child following which they decided to poison the infant and to kill her. 

The couple further claimed that they are daily wagers and wanted a male child who could earn. The back to back incidents had revealed the prevalence of the female infanticide in southern districts of Tamil Nadu and the existence of patriarchal and biased societies against women.