A 34-year-old Indian-origin man has been charged in the US in connection with the death of his 1-month-old son for allegedly failing to seek medical care for him even after realising that the infant was unresponsive.
Divya Patel of Rocky Hill in Connecticut was arrested after police discovered his one-month-old child dead in the backseat of his car on Sunday.
The arrest warrant states he and the baby's mother have been living from hotel to hotel since the baby was born. Patel also told police the baby had been born prematurely and suffered some health issues, Fox News reported.
The warrant also states that on Saturday evening, Patel called the baby's mother and said the baby was not breathing.
The mother told police she tried to get him to meet her at Saint Francis Hospital, but he never showed up. Instead, he told the mother to meet him at the Marriot Residence Inn in Rocky Hill.
In her police sworn statement, the mother said she last saw her baby alive around 5 am Saturday before she left the Residence Inn to go stay at another hotel, because she and Patel had a fight.
Patel told police that he had the infant in the back seat of his car Saturday when he noticed something was wrong.
He said he pulled over on the highway and felt that the baby was cold.
He tried doing Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and called the baby’s mother who ultimately called 911, according to police records.
After the 911 call, police tried to track Patel down for roughly 30 minutes, eventually meeting up with him and the child’s mother in the Residence Inn parking lot.
Patel told police later he thought of bringing the baby to the hospital, but thought it was too late. Patel was charged with risk of injury to a minor and tampering with evidence.
In his statement to police, Patel said that the baby had been sleeping in the bed with the couple because they didn’t have a crib.
The arrest warrant also states that Patel is in the middle of a divorce with another woman different from the infant’s mother.
During his arraignment, Patel's defence lawyer said Patel and his family own a Subway restaurant in Glastonbury and that he has lived in Connecticut for about 15 years.
The state argued Patel is a potential flight risk because he and the child’s mother had plans to move to Florida.
Monday, the judge ordered Patel be held on USD 1 million bond and he is due back in court December 5. The police investigation is open and active and more charges could be pending.
(PTI)
