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HYDERABAD: A woman allegedly strangled her nine-year-old son after he threatened to reveal her illicit relationship to his father at Buddaram village in Nalgonda district on Friday evening.

The accused, who was taken into custody on Saturday, confessed to killing her son, said Nalgonda police.

The woman said she strangled her son with a towel after he came to know about her extramarital relationship with a 60-year-old man and threatened to spill the beans about her affair to his father. Police suspect her paramour held the boy’s legs, while she strangled him. “We are probing the role of her paramour, who also belongs to Buddaram,” police said.

Police began the probe due to father’s suspicion

Since one year, she has been in a relationship with this man. Some time back, her husband has also came to know about her affair and warned both of them,’’ a Nalgonda police official told STOI.

Initially, the woman tried to pass it off as a natural death. It was only when the boy’s father suspected foul play, police began a probe. After noticing marks on the boy’s neck, police registered a suspicious death case.

During questioning by the police, the woman said she murdered her son as she was scared that he would disclose her affair to her husband.

“The boy went to sleep on Friday afternoon and got up some time later. This was when he saw his mother in an intimate position with the 60-year-old man. The boy was shocked and threatened to tell this to his father, who was away at work. In a fit of rage, she strangled the boy to death,” the police said.

After killing her son, she lied to her neighbours that the boy was unwell and sleeping. “After some time, she told them that he was not responding and had developed some rashes. The locals, who went to the accused’s house, found him dead,’’ Nalgonda rural sub-inspector Rajasekhar Reddy said.

The neighbours then alerted the boy’s father who works on a borewell drilling machine.

A case under section 302 (murder) of the IPC was registered. No arrests have been made yet.

