Hyderabad: Telangana in recent years witnessed a few incidents in which parents turned killers of their own children.
They were either under the influence of alcohol or were afraid of their extramarital relationship getting exposed. In some cases, they turned into monsters to take revenge on their spouses.
The most shocking incident took place in February 2022. A woman murdered her nine-year-old son due to the fear that he would reveal her extramarital relations with another man to her husband.
The incident occurred in Buddaram village in Nalgonda district. Paleti Vijaya (28) strangled Nagraj to death using a towel as he had come to know about her relationship with another man and had threatened to reveal this to her husband.
The police investigations revealed that the child saw her mother in a compromising position with a man when he woke up from his nap. Baffled at the sight, the child told her mother that he would complain to his father.
She with the help of her paramour killed the child, a third standard student.
The woman tried to mislead the police by telling them that the child died due to ill health. The truth came to light after police interrogated her when her husband Paleti Venkanna suspected foul play on her part.
Police also arrested the woman’s paramour T. Venkat Reddy (59), a farmer.
The investigations revealed that he had lent money to Venkanna and got closer to the latter’s wife in the process of collecting loan instalments.
In March 2023, a woman killed her six-year-old son by drowning him in a lake in Nizamabad district.
According to police, Lavanya (33) was addicted to alcohol and killed her son to get rid of her responsibilities.
G. Bharath, a painter, and Lavanya had married 12 years ago. He told police that she had made an unsuccessful attempt on their son’s life earlier.
The same month, a man murdered his wife and drowned his 40-day-old son to death in Rangareddy district.
Erpula Dhanraj murdered his wife Kandikanti Lavanya (23) with an axe and then drowned his 40-day-old son Kriyansh in a water tank. The horrific incident was reported from Anajpur of Abullahpurmet mandal near Hyderabad.
Dhanraj’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter Adya ran out to save herself and took shelter in a neighbour’s house. She revealed the chilling details of the horrific twin murders in front of her eyes. “He had become a monster as he attacked my mother in her face with a beer bottle and then hacked her with an axe. He then threw Kriyansh into the water tank,” she said. Lavanya’s family alleged that Dhanraj killed her for dowry.
In February 2021, a young woman allegedly under the influence of alcohol strangled her two-year-old son to death in Rangareddy district.
Parameshwari (22) committed the crime after a quarrel with her father-in-law Venkataiah, who had questioned her drinking habit and accused her of neglecting the child and her responsibilities.
Parameshwari’s husband, a musician, was away from home when the incident occurred.
In January of the same year, a man, who was under the influence of alcohol, set fire to his 12-year-old son in Hyderabad. The boy later succumbed to burn injuries. The boy narrated his ordeal while giving a dying declaration to a magistrate. The man told police that his son was not taking his studies seriously.
In Nalgonda district, a 24-year-old woman killed her two-year-old son and then herself. In the incident that occurred on May 22, 2022, the woman, identified as Lasya, first hanged her son, Satwik, from the ceiling fan and then hanged herself.
Lasya took the step as her husband was “harassing her” for dowry. According to police, she was married to Naresh, a railway worker. At the time of their marriage in 2019, Lasya’s family had promised to give Rs 35 lakh as a dowry. They initially gave Rs 10 lakh to Naresh, who was preparing for the state civil service exam. He was allegedly harassing her for the money.
In November 2022, a woman killed her son for objecting to her love affair. The incident occurred at Tankara village in Mahabubnagar district.
The woman with the help of her paramour and her son-in-law killed her son for questioning her alleged extramarital relationship.
Dayamma, a widow, hit Venkatesh (30) with a stick when he came home. This resulted in his death instantaneously. She with the help of her paramour Srinivas and her son-in-law Narasimulu dumped the body in a lake near the house in the dead of the night.
The next morning, she sheds fake tears that her son is missing. When police began searching for Venkatesh, she quietly slipped out of the village. The body of Venkatesh was found in the lake and the subsequent investigation by police revealed how the trio executed the plot.
Dayamma was in a relationship with Srinivas since her husband Papayya died of illness 10 years ago. Venkatesh had been objecting to this.
In April 2022, a 55-year-old woman killed her son with an axe. However, in this case, the woman took the step to save her grandchildren as he was attacking them under the influence of alcohol.
The incident took place at Ibrahimpatnam in Rangareddy district.
Appala Chittemma attacked her son Appala Bala Kotayya, a truck driver, with an axe. Kotayya had two children with his recently divorced wife Sirisha.
Chittemma had invited her grandchildren to celebrate Ram Navami. Kotayya, who came home inebriated, tried to attack Chittemma and his children with a sickle.
Chittemma fled with the children and found refuge in a neighbour’s house. Fearing that he would attack them again, Chittemma attacked him with an axe, killing him on the spot.
In March 2022, a 32-year-old woman killed her one-year-old son Ruthvik, slit her hands, consumed sanitiser and then jumped off the fourth floor of a building. She landed on a bike parked below and received severe injuries.
Fed up with the alleged harassment by her husband for additional dowry, she slit her son’s throat and tried to end her own life as well.
The horrific incident happened in Mettuguda area in Hyderabad. Police booked Thappeta Divya Teja for the murder of her son.
She had married Mahender in 2018 and at the time of the wedding, her parents gave him cash, gold jewellery and household articles as dowry. Divya Teja’s family alleged that Mahender, who claimed to be a CA, never went to work since marriage. She realised that he, along with his parents, had cheated on her. He had also allegedly started harassing her for additional dowry. He was also in a relationship with another woman.
–IANS