Bakersfield, CA, Newborn Death Case Concludes With Final Sentencing

Photo: Bakersfield PD

India-West News Desk

BAKERSFIELD, CA – A Kern County court has sentenced the last defendant in the 2018 killing of a newborn whose body was later found buried in the backyard of a southwest Bakersfield home.

Bakhshinderpal Singh Mann was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading no contest last year for his role in the case. He received credit for time already served. Canadian authorities captured Mann in 2021.

Prosecutors said the baby’s grandmother, Beant Kaur Dhillon, drowned the infant in November 2018. Investigators said Dhillon told them she acted because she believed her unmarried teenage daughter’s pregnancy would bring shame to the family. She was sentenced in 2021 to 25 years to life in prison.

The baby’s grandfather, Jagsir Singh, was also charged in the case. According to police, Singh said he was not home when the baby was born or killed but learned what had happened afterward. He told investigators he allowed the baby to be buried in the backyard and did not seek medical care for his daughter because he feared his wife would throw him out of the house and that he could be deported.

Singh was charged with aiding a felon, felony child abuse, and conspiracy. He died by suicide in March 2019 before the case was concluded.