Facebook ’prank’ goes wrong as woman abandons baby for online friend, relatives behind it end life

Mangalore Today News Network

Kollam, Jul 05, 2021: In January, a newborn baby boy was found in a heap of dry leaves in Kollam district of Kerala. The infant later died in a hospital. A police probe into the incident has revealed a prank among relatives that went horribly wrong, leading to the loss of three lives, one of them a few hours old baby.

 

The mother of the infant, Reshma of Kalluvathukkal village in Kollam, was arrested in June in connection with the death of the newborn.

As per a report in The Indian Express, police zeroed in on Reshma by collecting DNA samples of women in the area.

During interrogation, Reshma told police that she had left her newborn to die in order to elope with a man whom she had befriended on Facebook but never met in person.

According to police, she had not disclosed that she was pregnant to her husband, Vishnu, nor to anyone else in her family.

During their investigation to find out the woman’s Facebook friend, police called two of her relatives, her sister-in-law Arya, and niece Greeshma, for questioning.

Police summoned them as a mobile SIM card in Arya’s name was being used by Reshma to operate one of her multiple Facebook accounts.

In a strange turn of events, the two women allegedly died by suicide after they jumped into a river a day after they were summoned.

Following this, police questioned a friend of Greeshma who revealed that she had told him that she and Arya created the Facebook account of one Anandu to play a prank on Reshma.

Police also found that Arya had told her mother-in-law about the prank before she allegedly committed suicide.

Arya’s husband, however, said he had no idea about the prank.

Meanwhile, Reshma has been sent to judicial custody to a quarantine centre. She had tested positive for Covid-19, police said.

Courtesy:India Today