Kerala mom choked her 5-yr-old son to death during psychotic episode, family heartbroken

When Gangadharan, a former KSEB employee and a native of Punnassery in Kozhikode, decided to let his daughter and grandson sleep in on a cold Saturday morning, he had no idea of the tragedy that would soon unfold. His daughter Anu (40), who had been recently diagnosed with bipolar disorder, allegedly strangled her five-year-old son, Nanda Harshin, a UKG student, to death and later drowned him in a bucket of water.

The family is struggling to come to terms with the devastating turn of events. “Nanda usually sleeps with me. After his father, Bijeesh, an employee at the Railways, left for work, he woke up, said goodbye and went upstairs to sleep a little longer with his mother. Anu had already informed KSFE, where she works, that she would not be coming in that day. As it was cold, I thought of letting them sleep a while longer,” Gangadharan said.

“All of this happened within 30 minutes. I realised something was wrong when she came downstairs and the child was nowhere to be seen. I don’t know what suddenly took over her to do this. She was not somebody who harboured negative emotions. We would never have foreseen such a situation. She truly loved Nanda—she couldn’t even tolerate it if he had a common cold and would immediately rush him to the hospital. For her to do such a thing is unimaginable. Later in the evening, she kept asking what had happened to her child and where he was,” Gangadharan said.

According to the family, Anu had been undergoing treatment at the Chethana Centre for Neuropsychiatry following her diagnosis. "As far as I know, before her diagnosis and afterwards, nothing in her behaviour alarmed us. She took her medications regularly and went to work," Gangadharan said. "The only thing is that doctors had advised her against sleep deprivation. Over the past two days, she hadn’t been getting enough rest as she had gone on a tour.”

Kakkur police have booked Anu under Section 103(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (murder) and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act. She has been remanded to custody and is currently lodged at a facility in Manjeri. A date has been fixed for a psychiatric evaluation.  According to Kakkur SHO, the investigation is ongoing. 

Gangadharan said the family is struggling to cope with the loss of a child and Anu's arrest. “She was a brilliant student. She worked with the Railways in Mangaluru and later joined KSFE after clearing the PSC. Wherever she went, she made friends. She married Bijeesh seven years ago and was leading a stable family life,” he said, adding that Anu’s sister, Sinu, a guest lecturer, is also in deep shock.