COIMBATORE: The Singanallur police in Coimbatore have detained a woman for questioning regarding the suspicious death of her four-and-a-half-year-old daughter.
Police sources say the mother has confessed to murdering her child, but the investigation is ongoing.
The deceased girl, identified as Abarna Sree, was the daughter of Ragupathy and lived with her mother - Tamilarasi, aged around 35.
The couple had separated and Abarna was residing with her mother in Manikam Nagar, near Irugur in Coimbatore.
On Friday afternoon, Tamilarasi called 108 ambulance services for a medical emergency to admit her daughter to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH). Unfortunately, the doctors declared the child dead upon arrival.
Initially, Tamilarasi claimed that Abarna died due to health complications. She told relatives that the child had been playing in the neighbourhood in the morning but became unconscious after vomiting upon returning home.
However, the relatives are suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the child's death and alleged that Tamilarasi had been involved in an extramarital affair with a man namely Vasanth for the past year, following her separation from her husband.
Consequently, the police, who were investigating the child's death, brought Tamilarasi in for questioning, during which she confessed to the murder, said police sources.
According to the police, Vasanth allegedly pressured Tamilarasi to abandon her daughter if she wanted to be with him. It is believed that this led the mother to kill her child and then stage a scene to cover it up.
The child's body has been sent to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for postmortem.
Based on the findings from the autopsy, the police intend to file charges against both Tamilarasi and Vasanth.