Father Kills 1-Month-Old Baby To Seek Divorce From Child's Mother, Marry Second Woman

A one-month-old baby in India was killed by his father who thought his infant was a hurdle to his second marriage.

The incident took place in the northern Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir. Local police identified the suspect as Mohammad Suleman and said that the accused ran away from his home carrying his child on Oct. 13. He later threw the baby from some height in his village. The baby boy died on spot. The exact place where the infant was thrown was not revealed, Greater Kashmir reported Sunday.

Police received a tip regarding the incident following which they sent a team to locate the body of the child. The accused, who had fled the scene after killing the child, was arrested within 24 hours of committing the crime.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the man wanted to marry someone else and thought that the baby could cause a problem in his second marriage. He also believed that because of the child his first wife might not want to give him a divorce.

"Accused is presently under police custody and has also been sent on police demand by the Court and the investigation team of police station Rajouri is questioning him to ascertain all the aspects related to this case," police officials said.

Senior police officer Mohammad Aslam confirmed the motive of the killing, saying that the accused decided to kill his own son "so that his path is clear for getting a divorce from present wife and to marry someone else."

The child's mother urged the police to punish her husband for the inhuman act.

Last week, a father was accused of killing his 14-year-old daughter as part of an occult ritual in India. The man believed his teenage daughter was "possessed by a ghost."

The accused, identified as Bhavesh Akbari, decided to perform an exorcism to free her daughter from the "ghost."

Akbari made his daughter wear old clothes and took her to a field in their village in the western Indian state of Gujarat, where he and another man thrashed her. The teenager eventually died due to extreme torture.

"We have booked the two brothers for murder and have detained them. We have also detained a suspect whom we believe was associated with the ritual that the two brothers performed for getting rid of the evil spirit," a senior police officer told The Indian Express last Thursday.