Indian American Grandmother Found Guilty of Murdering Newborn Grandson
- Beant Kaur Dhillon, 45, admitted to killing her 15-year-old daughter’s baby in November 2018, and burying it in the backyard of their home in Bakersfield.
A California grandmother was found guilty on Dec. 16 of murdering her newborn grandson. Beant Kaur Dhillon, 45, was accused of killing her 15-year-old daughter’s baby in November 2018, and burying it in the backyard of their home in Bakersfield, along with her nephew, Bakhshinderpal Singh Mann, 23.
Dhillon is charged with first-degree murder, assault of a child under the age of 8 resulting in death and willful cruelty to a child. She faces 25 years to life in prison. Sentencing is set for Jan. 21, 2021.
During her trial, Dhillon told police she was in her bedroom on Nov. 18, 2018 when she heard an infant crying. When she followed the cry, she found her daughter unconscious on the bathroom floor in a pool of blood. She also found a baby, wrapped in a shawl under the bathroom sink. She told police she took the baby, placed him face down in four to six inches of water in the bathtub and left him there until he stopped moving.
She insisted that said she killed the baby to protect her daughter, and because she feared her community would speak poorly of her family and not talk to them, local news reports like BakersfieldNow and KGET TV reported.
Citing the police report, Bakersfield Now reported that the mother, who is not named because she is a juvenile, told the police that she was told that her child was taken somewhere to be adopted. She found out about her baby’s death this February when her brother told her the baby was buried in the backyard. The following day she reportedly went to a social worker at school, and told her what happened. he social worker contacted police and the baby’s body was discovered.
As per the police reports, Jagsir Singh, the father of the teenage mother, told police he wasn’t home during the birth and death of the baby. However, after learning what had happened, he told the police that he allowed the baby to be buried in the backyard. He said he did not seek medical attention for his daughter “because he was worried his wife would kick him out of the house and he might be deported,” the BakersfieldNow report said, citing the police. Singh was arrested on allegations of aiding a felon, felony child abuse and conspiracy, and released on a $50,000 bail. He committed suicide on March 7, 2019.