Lover denies marriage proposal, 27-yr-old kills her toddler son

COIMBATORE: Angry that his lover, a married woman, turned down his proposal to leave her family and marry him, a 27-year-old man murdered her three-year-old boy by assaulting him with a stone. His six-year-old brother was also injured in the attack and is battling for life at a hospital in Dharmapuri on Thursday.

The accused, S Venkatesh, a lorry driver hailing from a village near Adhiyamankottai, committed the murder with a plan to marry the boy’s mother, Priya (24), wife of Balakrishnan (30), a civil engineer, with whom he was in an illicit affair, said police.

He lured the two boys, Darshan (3) and Sashwanth (6), who were playing in front of their house to an isolated spot and threw chili powder on their eyes, before smashing their heads with a stone on.

As both the boys swooned, Venkatesh carried them home in an unconscious stage, and enacted a drama of having rescued them from a gang of child kidnappers. The family members immediately took both the boys to Dharmapuri Government Hospital, where Darshan died without responding to treatment and while his elder brother is in a critical condition.

The accused spilled the beans after a police team led by Dharmapuri district Superintendent of Police Stephen Jesubatham grilled him.

He confessed to having attacked the two boys, after Priya turned down his proposal for marriage and insisted not to visit her. Assuming the children to be an impediment for Priya to agree to marry him, Venkatesh decided to kill her sons, said the police. He was arrested by the police for murder and further inquiry is on.