01 August,2025 10:36 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
The accused has reportedly confessed to smothering him with a pillow in a cradle at her residence, police said. Representational Pic/File
A woman allegedly killed her six-month-old son by smothering him with a pillow over financial constraints since both of them had tested positive for HIV, a police official said on Friday, reported the PTI.
The incident came to light on Thursday evening, when the accused woman, who was working at a garment unit at Govandi, had a scuffle with her colleague and had pulled out a knife to attack the latter, he said.
"A police team rushed there after being alerted about the scuffle. While being questioned, the woman told police that the 43-year-old woman had killed her six-month-old son as she was unable to raise him due to her poor financial condition. The woman said she and her son had tested HIV positive," the official said, according to the PTI.
"She confessed to smothering him with a pillow in a cradle at her residence. A police team that went to her house found the child lying motionless in the cradle. The infant was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. The woman has been booked for murder," he said, as per the PTI.
Children refuse to shift from Latur shelter home where HIV-infected teen girl was raped
Meanwhile, inmates of a shelter home for HIV-infected children in Maharashtra's Latur district, in which a 17-year-old girl was allegedly raped, have refused to shift despite orders from local authorities following the incident, officials said on Friday, reported the PTI.
On July 25, a 17-year-old HIV infected girl had alleged rape and others forms of abuse at the shelter over a period of two years in a complaint filed at Dhoki police station in her native place in Dharashiv, following which the case, registered under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, was transferred to Ausa, officials said.
A probe led to the arrest of the founder, its superintendent and three employees, all of whom are currently in judicial custody, as per the PTI.
"On July 29, a District Women and Child Development team visited the shelter. They suggested that the children be shifted to other government-run facilities in Beed and Solapur. A notice was issued as well to shift 40 of the 75 children," an official said, according to the PTI.
"However, the children refused to shift claiming they were getting all facilities in the shelter home. Further decision on this issue will be taken by the Latur Child Welfare Committee," said a District Women and Development officer, the news agency reported.
(with PTI inputs)
