Dandeli (UTTARA KANNADA): After a fight with her husband, a woman from a village near Dandeli threw her six-year-old, speech-impaired son into a canal filled with crocodiles on Saturday night.
The child’s parents, Ravi Kumar Shelle and Savitri, who live in a rented house, had a heated argument late on Saturday night over the condition of their specially-abled child, identified as Vinod. A frustrated Savitri picked up their son who was sleeping and threw him into a nearby canal that is infested with crocodiles.
But when she returned home and better sense prevailed, she raised an alarm calling for help. “I threw my child into the waters. Please help him,” she is seen screaming in a video footage that has gone viral.
The neighbours immediately started searching for Vinod, hoping that he could be rescued if he was still alive. Some people also alerted the Dandeli Rural police station.
Police officials and the rescue team from the fire and emergency department along with divers arrived on the scene and started searching for the child. “Initially, we thought the child might have fallen in the middle of thick tree cover. But we could not trace the boy. We then realised that she might have thrown him directly into the canal,” a villager said. “We could see one of the crocodiles holding the body in its mouth,” said Santosh, an eyewitness. Parts of the boy’s body were found on Sunday morning after rescue teams resumed the search operation.
The police said the couple fought regularly as the husband had a deep dissatisfaction over Vinod’s condition. On Saturday night too, the argument was over the same issue that led to the murder of the boy. Savitri told the police that her husband would always say about the child, “Of what use he is. He just keeps on eating. Throw him somewhere else. Let him die.”
A case of murder has been booked against the couple.