21-year-old woman arrested for murdering infant nephew in Hyderabad after tiff with sister-in-law

HYDERABAD: A day after the body of two-month-old Uma Maheshwar was found in the water tank at their grandparents’ house in Anajpur of Abdullapurmet on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Rachakonda police arrested his aunt Oruganti Swetha, 21.

The child’s mother Doosari Latha allegedly insulted Swetha after she had a miscarriage and said she will not have children in the future too. Bearing a grudge against Latha, Swetha killed her child, said K Purushotham Reddy, ACP Vanasthalipuram.

After her delivery two months ago, Latha along with her child had been staying with her parents. Her brother Balraj and his wife Swetha were also staying in the same house at Anajpur village. Swetha who was in her third month of pregnancy recently had a miscarriage due to the ill health of the baby in the womb.

After the incident, Latha allegedly used to laugh at Swetha and insulted her saying that she may not conceive in the future as she is suffering from thyroid disorder. Upset with these comments,



Swetha bore a grudge against Latha and decided to teach her a lesson.

Accordingly, a week ago she hatched a plan to kill the baby boy to take revenge against Latha to make her understand the pain of not having children. Since then she had been waiting for an opportunity to kill the baby.     

In the wee hours of Friday, when they were all in deep sleep, Swetha woke up, picked up the child sleeping with his mother and grandmother, and took him to the terrace. She tried to kill the child by smothering him and applying force on the chest, but as the child started crying, she dropped him into the water tank. She then waited there for five minutes and after making sure the child was dead, she returned to her room and slept as usual.

After the baby’s body was recovered, police found that there was no forced entry into the house and questioned family members. During the inquiry, Swetha admitted to killing the child. She was arrested and sent to remand on Saturday.