Kannur: Paramour booked on abetting murder of lover's son

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.

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, the child went missing from home since the early hours. The statements of the parents 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, the woman claimed she had asked her husband to take care of the boy.

Subsquently, her paramour Nidhin was questioned and he maintained that he never insisted on getting rid of the child, they said.

"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.