Honour killing: grandmother arrested for baby’s murder

The horrifying case of the smothering of a 29-day-old baby boy, just days ago in the city, has taken a rather unseemly twist.

The horror surrounding the case went up a notch higher with the infant’s grandmother confessing to the crime. The grandmother told the police that she killed the infant, as she was upset over her son’s inter-caste marriage.

After a detailed interrogation of all the family members, Ashok Nagar police arrested 53-year-old Vijayalakshmi, the infant’s grandmother.

On December 21, the baby boy was found strangled, with a veil around his neck and was hidden under the cot. At the time, the mother was nursing the other twin at their house in North Street near Neelasandra in Central Bengaluru.

Ashok Nagar police said that Vijayalakshmi was unhappy over her son’s marriage to a woman of a different religion. She used to have frequent quarrels with her daughter-in-law and her son over the issue.

Her anger intensified when her son converted to his wife’s religion. Thereafter, Vijayalakshmi vacated the house and moved into a rented house, right opposite in the same lane, along with her husband and her younger son.

The baby’s father C Karthik had filed a complaint suspecting his own father, Chittar Raj (64), a retired army man, and his younger brother, Aravind (32), who works as a labourer in HAL.

Karthik stated in the complaint that he had married Stella in February this year even as the family opposed. Stella gave birth to twins on November 22.

On December 21, one of the twins was not well. So they left the other twin with Karthik’s mother Vijayalakshmi, residing in the same neighbourhood, and took the sick twin to the doctor.

The couple returned home around 5.15 pm, and Stella left the sick infant in one room and asked Vijayalakshmi to boil milk to feed the other twin.

Vijayalakshmi brought the milk and Stella was feeding the baby. Karthik left home to buy medicines at around 5.30 pm.

Strangled with a veil

Meanwhile, Vijayalakshmi got hold of the sick infant and strangled him with a veil, and hid the baby boy under the cot. Vijayalakshmi then told Stella that she was going for a walk and left the house.

Karthik returned home around 5.45 pm and noticed that the sick infant who was in the room had gone missing. After searching everywhere, they alerted the police.

According to the police, Vijayalakshmi used to visit Karthik’s house on the pretext of taking care of the twins, but, she in fact wanted to take revenge against her daughter-in-law.

Vijayalakshmi was booked for murder and produced before the magistrate on Tuesday. She was remanded in judicial custody.