Uncle threw 2-year-old in well with mom's knowledge; woman arrested in Balaramapuram child murder

Eight months after the murder of  two-year-old girl Devendu in Balaramapuram, the police on Saturday arrested her mother Sreethu. She has been arraigned as the second accused in the case. The police had earlier arrested the child's maternal uncle Harikumar, for murder.

In January, Devendu's body was found in a well near her house at Kottukalkonam in Balaramapuram. Initially suspected as a missing case, her body was later retrieved from the well. Contradictory statements by family members prompted police to suspect Harikumar and his arrest was recorded.

Sreethu is married to Sreejith, a supermarket employee. They lived separately following disagreements over personal issues, police said. Sreethu, her mother Ragini, brother Harikumar and Devendu's four-year-old elder sister stayed in the house at Balaramapuram.

The police had strong suspicions about Sreethu at the onset of the investigation. The cops subjected Harikumar to polygraph test and results corroborated the findings. The police conducted DNA tests and confirmed that Sreejith was not Devendu's father. This led cops to dig into Sreethu's affairs. Paternity tests were done and the results came back negative.

"Since Sreejith was not Devendu's father, she was like an unwanted child for Sreethu. We have collected evidence to establish her motive to get rid of the child. We believe she was fully aware when Harikumar took the child at night, when she was sleeping, and threw her into the well. Sreethu hadn't consented to a polygraph test. However, the results of Harikumar's test have confirmed our findings," said a senior police official associated with the probe.

In May, Harikumar had told Thiruvananthapuram Rural SP about Sreethu's alleged involvement in Devendu's murder. The police had initially thought that he had killed the child out of bitterness towards his sister. The police have cited the relevant section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which pertains to the principle of joint liability when multiple people commit a crime with a common intention.

Sreethu will be produced in the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court -3 , Neyyatinkara. The police will also seek her custody for further interrogation and evidence collection. Sreethu was earlier arrested in a cheating case. A man named Shiju had filed a complaint saying that she swindled ₹10 lakh from him by promising a driver's job at the Devaswom board. Sreethu was a temporary staff in the Devaswom board. She was slapped with charges of cheating and forgery. She was remanded into judicial custody in this case and recently she was released on bail.