Man Drowned 18-Month-Old Baby In Water Tank After Argument With Infant's Father

A man in India has been arrested for allegedly drowning an 18-month-old boy who lived in the same neighborhood after an argument with the child's father, police said.

The police arrested the 22-year-old suspect, identified as Naresh from Faridabad, a city in the northern Indian state of Haryana, Saturday, almost six months after the alleged murder. Naresh admitted that he murdered the child to exact revenge against the child's father with whom he argued over 60 cents, police said, as reported by The Indian Express.

The infant was found dead in a water tank near the house and the police had registered a case after the incident was reported on Feb. 5, 2021.

"During questioning, the accused confessed to the crime. He said that the child’s father and he would often get into arguments over different matters. Two days before the crime, the accused grabbed Rs 50 [ 60 cents] from the complainant’s eight-year-old daughter, because of which the two men got into another fight,” Sube Singh, an investigating officer, said.

The investigators determined that Naresh held a grudge against the victim's father after the incident. On the day the child was found dead, Naresh reportedly abducted the kid while he was playing outside the house and took him to his own house.

"Later on, he took him up to the roof of the house and drowned him in the water tanker. He then closed the tanker with a wire so that his crime would not be discovered,” Singh added. The parents discovered the child's body later that day while they were searching for their missing child.

Naresh fled after the incident and evaded the arrest several times by frequently changing his location, police said, as reported by Times Now News.

In June, a 21-year-old woman in India has been arrested for allegedly killing her two-month-old nephew by throwing him inside a water tank. The suspect, identified as Oruganti Swetha, from the Indian state of Telangana admitted to the police that she committed the crime to “teach a lesson” to her sister-in-law. Swetha reportedly held a grudge against the victim's mother and killed the child while the other members of the family were asleep.