Man Kills 10-Year-Old Son At Home In Gujarat, Arrested

A mentally disturbed man from a village in Ahmedabad district allegedly killed his 10-year-old son by smashing his head against the altar of a goddess in his house and slept beside the body on a cot, police said on Monday. 

The incident occurred at Vinchhiya village in Sanand taluka on Sunday night. The accused, Naresh Patel, a farm labourer, was at home with his son as his wife Bhartiben had gone to her parents' home after a quarrel with him, Sanand police station's inspector Jayprakash Chauhan said.

According to a



complaint lodged by Bhartiben, the accused allegedly told her that he had sacrificed their only son at the goddess's altar so that no one in the family would become a "bhuva" (a traditional ritual practitioner, acting as an intermediary between the local community and deities) after him. 

"The man killed his son Karan at a small altar of a goddess in his house and slept next to his body on a cot. The accused is severely mentally disturbed. The boy's mother had left for her parents' home following an argument with her husband," Chauhan said.