Behrampore, May 28: A jackal took away a baby girl asleep beside her mother in a courtyard in the wee hours today in a Murshidabad village.

This morning, residents of Rameshwarpur only found Khukumoni’s head in a bush.

The head has been sent for post-mortem to Behrampore.

Police said a case of unnatural death was registered with Daulatabad police station, about 200km from Calcutta, following a complaint by the baby’s father, Asgar Sheikh, who is a farmer.

Villagers said the two-and-a-half-month-old girl was snatched by the animal when she was asleep with her grandma Anjura Bibi and mother Tagari, 22, in the courtyard of their house.

Asgar said that the jackal entered his in-laws’ house at Rameshwarpur where his wife Tagari had been staying since the baby was born.

Tagari’s mother Anjura said: “Hearing the child crying, we woke up around 2.30am and raised the alarm when we saw a jackal taking her away. We chased the animal. It ran into some bushes in the backyard holding my granddaughter by the neck.”

Anjura said other villagers joined her and Tagari in searching for the child all night.

“The jackal was not found. We found the severed head of Khukumoni behind a bush,” Anjura said, clutching her weeping daughter.

Villagers said jackals are seen in Rameshwarpur because there is a burial ground in the area. “We often hear jackals howl in the dead of the night near the burial ground. One of those animals must have strayed into the village and taken away the baby girl,” said Anwar Sheikh, a villager.

District police chief B.L. Meena said: “Street dogs sometimes carry away new borns. But I have not heard of a jackal carrying away a baby here. We are taking up the matter with the forest department.”