Indian woman accused of killing her 5-day-old child attempted suicide in police custody

Little Ferry, New Jersey:

Hiralbahen Bhavsar, 29, who was arrested in the killing of her 5-day-old child with a kitchen knife on May 2, tried to kill herself during an interview with police.

But the detectives from the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and the Little Ferry police, were able to stop her attempts to block her airway with wet paper towels and to cut her wrists by biting at them and clawing them with her fingernails, the Bergen Record reported quoting police reports.

Police took her to Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus for further evaluation and treatment.

Bhavsar pleaded not guilty in Superior Court to charges, including first-degree homicide. The case is posted for May 17 for her family to engage a private attorney. ‘I certainly want Ms. Bhavsar to have the benefit of an attorney she wants,’ Judge Susan Steele said.
She ‘staggered into the Hackensack courtroom wearing a green prison jumpsuit and a blank expression,’ the report noted. No family members were present in the courtroom. When the judge asked if she understood her rights, she said yes.
The judge inquired whether she was the guardian of any incapacitated adults or children.
Bhavsar paused for a moment, then said, ‘No.’

The sad events began to unfold on May 2 night when Bhavsar, who is believed to be suffering from post partum depression (PPD), called the police reporting that she suffered chest pain.

Then she changed the story and said her husband was trying to kill her with a knife after an argument.

When police arrived they immediately handcuffed her husband Jaymin, to the protests of the family.

Bhavsar, who was inside the room came out and told the police that she had cut the throat of her daughter. ‘I killed my baby. I did it,’ she said.

Officers found the child on a bed in a pool of blood, with knife wounds to her throat and left arm. A black-handled kitchen knife was lying next to the child, according to police records.

Bhavsar said she didn't want her baby and that she had stabbed her once in the neck and once in the arm, according to the affidavit.

Jaymin Bhavsar told police that family members were eating dinner in the living room when the baby began crying. The mother took the baby into a rear bedroom, grabbed an item from the kitchen and locked the bedroom door, according to the affidavit.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/bergen/little-ferry/2019/05/08/little-ferry-mother-hiralbahen-bhavsar-charged-infants-killing-pleads-not-guilty/1118018001/