Mother beats son to death in India to hide affair with landlord

According to reports, Rakhi has been arrested for beating her son with a cricket bat after she realised he knew of her...

A woman in India was arrested on Tuesday for beating her son to death with a cricket bat to hide her affair with their landlord.

According to reports, Rakhi Balpande, 36, beat her partially-disabled teenage son, Chaitanya, to hide her relationship with her boyfriend Sumit More.

Rakhi, who is separated from her husband, Tarun Balpande, thrashed her son with help from More after she realised he knew of her affair and feared she would be exposed, according to MidDay.

While Rakhi told the doctors at the hospital that 13-year-old Chaitanya fell in the bathroom it was later revealed that he died of a blunt force to his chest and stomach.

Read: British court imprisons Pakistani man for stabbing wife 15 times over learning English

"Death occurred due to blunt trauma to the chest and abdomen. There are multiple contusions over his body. His kidneys had failed and lungs were also damaged. We observed bleeding from his nose and mouth. An inch long wound was found near his head, and another of almost two inches near his ears,” the doctor who conducted the postmortem said.

Assistant Inspector Suryakant Marode of the Vishrantwadi police station, who is investigating the case, said, “Rakhi’s estranged husband, Tarun, had taken out an insurance policy in Chaitanya’s name and she wished to present the murder as a case of accidental death, which is why she kept cooking up various theories...”

Read: British boy given 11-year sentence for knifing teacher

Neighbours and locals suspect that Rakhi had been torturing her son and used to starve and beat him repeatedly. A neighbour who tried to rasie her voice on the issue was threatened to stay quiet. Futher, Rakhi’s mother tried to step in and take Chaitanya away but was scared away by Rakhi with threats of kidnapping charges against her if she tried.

Along with Rakhi, More has also been arrested for abetting in the murder and both are in police custody till August 12.

The article originally appeared on MIDDAY.