Man Held for Driving Around with Dead Baby in Connecticut

Only weeks after the death of 4-year-old Sherin Mathews shocked the Indian American community in the United States, another man was arrested recently for causing injury to a minor. Divya Bharat Patel, 34, was arrested by the Connecticut State Police after he was found driving with his unresponsive infant. He had not sought medical help for the child.

Patel, a resident of Rocky Hill, had been driving around with dead one-month-old Aayan when he was apprehended on Nov. 18. Patel is being kept at the Hartford, Connecticut Correctional Center and his bail has been set at $1 million.

Patel’s wife called 911 on Nov. 18 to say that Aayan was not breathing. She said that he was in a car with her husband outside Residence Inn in Rocky Hill. When the police arrived at the spot, they did not find him there. They called him on his cell phone but he was uncooperative and refused to tell the police his whereabouts, according to the arrest warrant.

The police tracked his GPS information to find that he was cruising in Glastonbury, 15 miles away. He came back to Residence Inn after 30 minutes and turned himself and the baby over to the police. The police gave first-aid and the infant was taken to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, where he was later declared dead.

The state police found that Patel knew that the child was dead and did not seek medical help. If it’s found that he was responsible for the child’s death, he would be facing murder charges.