A 22-year-old woman was arrested on Monday for allegedly choking her toddler son to death with a woollen glove and hiding his body in a bed box at their home in Burail village of Punjab.
The body of the boy, who was aged two-and-a-half years, remained lying in the bed box for two days, before it was found by his father on Sunday.
Preliminary investigations have revealed that accused Roopa confessed to killing her son, as well as her daughter last year. In both cases, police suspect the involvement of a male friend, who, sources said, is being questioned.
Complainant Dashrath, aka Rajesh, who is an electrician, had married Roopa in 2016. Divyanshu was born in 2017. A daughter, Komal, born in 2019, had died mysteriously the same year, police said.
In a missing person report lodged earlier, Dashrath said he returned home from work on January 25 to find Roopa and Divyanshu missing. Dashrath had also claimed that Roopa was not happy with the marriage and had differences with his family.
On Sunday, while looking for a quilt, he opened the bed box and found the boy’s body lying there. The child was declared dead on being rushed to Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. A search following a tip-off from undisclosed sources led to the arrest of the homemaker, police said.
“After an FIR was lodged following Dashrath’s complaint on Sunday, Roopa was arrested by the Sector 34 police station officials on Monday following search operations,” said deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Charanjit Singh Virk. “Autopsy revealed a woollen glove lodged in the child’s windpipe.”
Preliminary reports indicated that she planned to eliminate the whole family in December 2019, he added. Roopa has been booked under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
