Mom kills only son in forest, sits by his body for hours

MAPUSA: A 'mentally unstable' 38-year-old woman Ujwala Shetgaonkar allegedly killed her only child, a 5 year-old boy, in the forest area near her home in Korgao on Saturday and remained seated next to the body for hours till the incident came to light.

Pernem PI Sandesh Chodankar told TOI that while the exact cause of death would be established only after the postmortem, "no murder weapon was found, nor were there any blood stains or injury marks on the body". Police sources said they suspect child was either strangulated or suffocated to death.

Ujwala, originally from Korgao, was married to Arjun Shetgaonkar from Morjim and had come to the parents' house in Korgao along with her son, Harishchandra, a few days ago.

Police said the husband informed them that he had taken Ujwala for medical treatment as she was mentally unstable, but she had refused to take the prescribed medications.

Around 9am on Saturday, following some conflict with her mother and some other family members, Ujwala left the house in a fit of anger and went into the nearby forest area along with her son, police said, adding that family members expected that she would return after she calmed down.

However, as there was still no sign of mother and child almost six hours later, the mother alerted family and neighbours, who set out in search of them. Police said around 3.15pm, Ujwala was found at an isolated spot about 1.5 kilometres away from her house crying while holding the body of the child.

Police said she stayed that way till they arrived at the site.

Pernem police conducted the panchanama and sent the body to the Goa medical college. Ujwala has been taken into police custody. "We have registered an offence of murder against Ujwala and have send her for medical examination," Chodankar said. Pernem police are further investigating the case.