Punjab: 'Mentally unwell' mother strangulates 5-year-old son to death in Ludhiana

A woman killed her own minor son and dumped his body in a pond. The shocking incident took place in Ludhiana's Banohar village.

Ludhiana: A woman strangulated her five-year-old son in the Bhanohar village area of Ludhiana district in Punjab on Wednesday. However, the incident came to light on Thursday after the woman's husband filed a complaint about his missing child. Later the police team recovered the dead body of the child from a nearby pond in the village.

The accused is been identified as Babita Rani who is in her late 30s and is told to be suffering from some 'mental illness'. Police said that according to her husband Shyam Lal's statement, the couple had lost three of their babies earlier, two as fetuses and one infant daughter all of them having been allegedly killed by his wife. As per Shyam Lal, his son Viraj had gone missing on Wednesday. He kept asking his wife about the boy’s whereabouts but she did not give any clear answer.

Later, on Wednesday she left the house and returned home on Thursday. Upon her return, Lal again questioned her about the whereabouts of their son, to which the woman could not provide a satisfactory answer. After being cornered by Lal, the woman confessed to having killed the boy and thrown the body in a pond. On Thursday a police team with the help of a JCB machine fished out the dead body of the child and sent it for postmortem. The accused has been arrested and an FIR registered under relevant sections.