PANAJI
Probing a heart-wrenching murder of a five-year-old boy, the Panaji police are inquiring into a deposition that gives an impression poverty persuaded the mother to strangulate her son.
The single mother, hailing from Nepal was arrested last Sunday and subsequently remanded to 11 days of police custody for murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The motive is still not clear.
As per preliminary details, the accused had separated from her husband and lived with her child in a rented space located on the outskirts of Panaji. Employed as a housekeeper in a starred hotel, she would reportedly leave her child back home while going out for work. She did the same on the fateful day, October 29 but the only difference this time was that she had already strangulated him to death before stepping out for work.
“She strangled him twice, once by using her dupatta to ascertain he stopped breathing,” a police official, monitoring the probe said.
Details further reveal that on the same evening, the accused woman called her neighbour requesting to administer medicine to her child, for he was unwell. “When the neighbour opened the bolted door, she found the child motionless. Panicked, the neighbour called back the accused on her mobile phone informing her about the boy,” an official said. The police were soon summoned to the spot and rushed the child to the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) to help revive him back to life. The doctors declared him “brought dead.”
During the police inquiry, the officers found the woman’s behaviour suspicious. After thorough questioning, she finally confessed that “poverty” forced her to take away her son’s life. “She is trying to show the pitiable condition she and her child lived in. She earns a monthly income of Rs 8,000 approx of which she pays around Rs 5,000 towards the room rent. Unable to handle the pressure to take care of her son all by herself, she killed him,” the officer said, quoting her deposition. The investigation team is skeptical about her side of the story stating, “She might be fabricating a story to gain undue sympathy from the court. Irrespective of her statement, she has committed a grave offense,” the police said. The accused's estranged husband and other persons known to the accused will be summoned for questioning.
The Panaji police have also added relevant sections of the Goa Children’s Act to the FIR against her.
