CHENNAI: A day after a couple lodged a complaint that their infant had gone missing from their home in Velachery, police recovered the toddler’s body from the Velachery lake and arrested the mother on charges of murder. Police said the woman told them that she killed the child as she developed unbearable pain while breast-feeding him.


Venkanna, 30, and his wife Uma, 27, both from Andhra Pradesh, were married two years ago, said a police officer. Venkanna was employed at a supermarket in a city mall, while Uma was working at a clothing store in the same mall. Uma had given birth to a baby boy in August.

The couple lodged a complaint at the Velachery police station on Saturday, saying the infant who was sleeping with them went missing early in the morning. As they kept the window open for ventilation, the infant’s mother said someone could have stolen the baby.

Velachery police grew suspicious as the woman gave contradictory statements. Neighbours told police they saw a woman in a nightgown carrying the child on her shoulders at 4am, adding that the woman looked like the infant’s mother. When a special team headed by deputy commissioner, Adyar, Sashank Sai and Velachery inspector E Velu, interrogated the woman, she confessed to having killed the child. Though she complained to her husband and her mother about the pain she felt during breast-feeding, they failed to provide her medication, she said.

Uma wanted to give the baby to her mother but her husband refused, following which she took the child and threw him in the Velachery lake in the early hours of Saturday, said an investigating officer. The child’s body was fished out after her confession. Police booked Uma on charges of murder and arrested her.