VELLORE: A 24-year-old woman was on Saturday arrested for murdering her lover’s three-year-old son in her house in Muthumandapam near Vellore New Bus Stand, allegedly to avenge the child’s mother for being a hindrance to her affair.
The police arrested Sumathi, wife of Prabhu and mother of two children, for smothering the boy. She was remanded to the Special Prison for Women here.
The boy went missing from around 2 pm on Friday. His father Murali and mother M Sumathi (26) approached the Vellore North police around 8 pm after a frantic search for the child and lodged a missing complaint. In the complaint, Murali said his son Dinesh went to play in a neighbour’s house and did not return till 4 pm and that they searched for him in and around the house for nearly three hours, but in vain.
Acting on the complaint, Ramachandran and a police team rushed to the spot and conducted an inquiry. “We suspected Sumathi (wife of Prabhu) to be behind the disappearance of the child as she was having an illegal affair with the child’s father for the last one year. The child’s mother and Sumathi frequently quarrelled over the affair,” said Ramachandran. On seeing the police, Murali’s paramour Sumathi, who was living in the opposite house, locked her house and sat in front of it. The police questioned Sumathi, who gave contradictory statements, and refused to open the door. They then broke open the house and searched it. They found the boy’s body stuffed inside a cupboard and covered with clothes and picked her up for inquiry. On interrogation, she told the police that Murali’s wife had abused her for having an affair with her husband and so she wanted to take revenge on her.
On Friday afternoon, Sumathi forcibly took Dinesh, who was playing on the street, into her house and smothered him to death. She did so as Murali’s wife was fond of their son. After murdering the child, she kept his body amidst the clothes in the cupboard.
The police registered a case under section 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of the offence) of the IPC and apprehended her. The child’s body was sent to the Government Vellore Medical College and Hospital for autopsy.