The accused claimed that she was worried about the financial toll the child would have on her son, the father.
Days after a 29-day-old infant was found smothered to death in Bengaluru’s Viveknagar, Ashoknagar police arrested the baby’s grandmother on the grounds of murder. 53-year-old Vijayalakshmi was taken into custody by the police on Tuesday after she confessed to the crime.
On December 21, at around 5.30pm, Vijayalakshmi had strangled the child with her dupatta while the child’s mother, Stella, was tending to the baby’s twin in another room. She then covered the baby with her dupatta and placed it under the cot before going for her routine evening walk.
When Stella found her son missing, she informed her husband and Vijayalakshmi’s son, Karthik. The duo approached the Ashoknagar police to give a complaint. Police came and searched the home and found the child under the cot and rushed him to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP Central) D Devaraja said that Vijayalakshmi had committed the crime because she felt that the child would be too much of a financial strain on her son. “My second grandson was born with health problems and was treated for 10 days after birth. The treatment continued even after we brought him home. On Thursday, my son and daughter-in-law decided to change their doctor as the baby showed no sign of improvement. He was treated for two days at a private nursing home in Fraser Town. I was worried he may not survive and it would burden my jobless son. So I decided to murder the child as my son would, anyway, be left with the other baby. I killed him when Stella was in the washroom,” Vijayalakshmi told the police.
However, there are also allegations that Vijayalakshmi was upset with her son’s decision to marry a woman of a different religion, which prompted her to commit the crime.
TNM
