Woman Drowns 6-Month-Old Son In Water Tank 'Unknowingly' After Waking Up

A woman was arrested Tuesday after she drowned her six-month-old son in a water tank in Kota, a city in the west Indian state of Rajasthan.

Police said the incident came to light around 1.30 a.m. local time Sunday (4 p.m. EDT Saturday) when the child’s father found the baby missing. He then woke his wife, 35-year-old Deepika Gujjar, and his mother, who joined him in finding the child. A while later, his mother found the infant lying dead in the water tank. A police report was filed early Sunday; however, Gujjar misled the police until Tuesday before confessing, local television station NDTV reported.

During interrogation, a teary-eyed Gujjar told police that she woke up from deep sleep, "unknowingly" took the child to the rooftop, drowned him in the water tank and then went back to sleep. Police said Gujjar told them that she did not know why she committed the crime. She was taken into custody and charged with murder. Gujjar could be sentenced to life imprisonment if found guilty. The motive behind the crime was not known.

Along with Gujjar, police said they also suspected her husband and his mother, as they were the only ones sleeping near the child when the incident took place. The other family members were sleeping on the ground floor of the two-floor house. Police also said though the mother did not have a history of physiological or mental disorder, they would still investigate the aspect. Gujjar has earlier lost three children, one of whom died due to miscarriage.

The incident comes a few days after a woman killed her two-day-old daughter by drowning her in the water tank in Rajasthan’s capital city Jaipur. During interrogation, the woman, identified as Yasmin, told police that she “threw” the baby into the water tank after her husband left home for work. She confessed that she took the step as she already had two sons and did not want a third child, local daily the Times of India reported.