A 27-year-old man, believed to be a paramour of a woman accused of murdering her one-and-a- half-year-old son, was arrested on Thursday, police said. Nidhin came under suspicion after it came to light that he visited the toddler's mother on the eve of the murder.
The man was held based on contradictory statements and was booked on abetting the murder of the toddler, though he has been maintaining that he never insisted upon the woman to get rid of the boy, the police said.
On February 17, one-and-a-half-year-old child Viyan went missing from the home in the early hours. The statements of the parents, Sharanya and Pranav, were contradictory following which police questioned them separately for hours. "Initially the mother had told us that she left the child near her husband on the night of February 16. But later confessed she took the boy outside the house and threw him among the rocks near the sea in the night," a police officer had told PTI. The body was found between the rocks and relatives had alleged foul play in the death. The post-mortem report showed that the death was due to some injury in the head, police said. The couple was on the brink of divorce. The man, who lodged the complaint that the child went missing, had stayed back at his wife's house for the first time in the last three months, the police said. The man told the police that the toddler had gone to sleep the previous night along with the mother.
On the other hand, Sharanya claimed she had asked her husband to take care of the boy. However, in a sudden turn of events, Sharanya reportedly confessed to the police that she hurled the child at the sea-wall to live with her lover. The investigating team questioned Nidhin after Pranav raised suspicions about the former's involvement in the murder. However, he maintained that he never insisted on getting rid of the child.
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Nidhin had admitted to the police that he had met Sharanya near her house on the day before the murder. A neighbour too had testified to spotting him near Sharanya's house on February 16 evening. But he has maintained that he did not pressurise Sharanya for marriage or conspire to kill the child. The police have also received evidence of several financial dealings between Sharanya and her lover.
"We found contradictory statements given by him. He had, from the beginning, maintained that he had not insisted upon the woman to get rid of the boy," the police said.
"We learnt that the illicit lovers used to have long conversations over telephone, which he had denied earlier. Some witnesses had also told us that he had visited the house a day before the incident," investigating officer told PTI.
(With inputs from Onmanorama, PTI)