Nagpur: Inebriated dad strangulates 10-year-old son

NAGPUR: A 44-year-old inebriated man allegedly strangled his 10-year-old son, Gulshan alias Gabru, to death at their Surdevi slum hutment on Sunday. The man, identified as Santlal Madavi, was apparently miffed with his son, a standard IV student, for not doing some domestic chores like filling water and washing clothes.
After strangling his son to death with a rope, Santlal tried to create a crime scene of suicide to mislead the police, by tying a nylon rope from the ceiling hook. He also left the door locked from inside by accessing the latch from atop the door, which is barely four feet high. His daughter was not at home when he murdered the son.
Leaving the boy dead, Santlal had left with his daughter to bring his sister from Mahadula. On returning, he asked his daughter to open the door and also acted as if looking for Gulshan around. The daughter was left stunned to see the motionless body of the brother on the floor, following which she raised an alarm. Santlal too started alerting the neighbours and said something strange had happened to his son.
Santlal, who earned a livelihood as labourer, was a habitual child beater. It’s learnt Santlal’s daughter, aged around 12 and studying in standard VI, usually cooked for the family of three and also cleaned the house since her mother left the family around four years ago. The neighbours often offered the two siblings food as their father remained inebriated.
Zonal DCP Sarang Awad, ACP Santosh Khandekar and inspector DM Bhedodkar of Koradi police station reached the place after being alerted by the control room about the mysterious death of the boy. The cops rounded up Santlal after his statements were found to be contradictory.
“The neighbours too shared their knowledge about Santlal’s habit of thrashing children on any trivial issues regularly,” said Khandekar. Santlal was later booked for murdering his son.