In a horrifying incident, a 38-day-old infant was killed by his grandfather Veeramuthu in Ariyalur’s Jayankondam after he believed that it was ‘bad luck’ since the baby was born in the Tamil month of Chithirai (mid April to mid May). The murder came to light after the corpse of the baby was found inside a barrel near Veeramuthu’s house on Monday, June 17. Reports said that the child was killed three days ago.

TNM spoke to the Inspector of Jayankondam who said that Veermuthu was already worried about the “bad luck” the newborn child would bring misfortune on him and his son-in-law’s family. The police officer also noted that Veeramuthu was also concerned about the debts he had incurred for his daughter’s marriage. “Veeramuthu had to take on more debt to pay for the customary gifts and ceremonies after a child’s birth.” 

The police officer also mentioned that Veeramuthu confessed to killing the child during their investigation. He added, “At first, he planned to take the child somewhere far away and leave him there but that did not work out. So he put the child in a barrel in an attempt to kill him. When people began noticing the child was missing, even Veeramuthu joined in the search. We had our suspicions that it was someone in the family and upon our questioning, he confessed.” 

Veeramuthu was arrested after his confession and has been remanded. A case against him has been registered under Section 302 (murder) under the Indian Penal Code (IPC).