Boy, 12, ‘strangled’ by dupatta at home

CHENNAI: In a freak accident, a 12-year-old boy choked to death after his mother’s dupatta wound tight around his neck during a ‘game’ at his house in Madipakkam on Tuesday evening.

Thiru Karthikeyan, a Class VII student of a private school in Nanganallur, had returned from school on Tuesday evening and was playing in his room. His mother was preparing dinner and his father, Shankar, was at work.

A police officer said that the accident occurred when the boy was running along the length of the room, rubbing his face along clothes hung out to dry on a rope strung above the cot.

A dupatta on the clothesline accidentally got entangled around his neck and turned into a noose, from which Karthikeyan couldn’t escape and collapsed to the ground.

On seeing this, Karthikeyan’s mother ran to his side and took him to a private hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Kathikeyan and his family members lived on the second floor at an apartment complex on Medavakkam Main Road and he was busy preparing for his half-yearly examinations that began on Wednesday, police said.

The Madipakkam police have registered a case and further investigations are on.