It was between 3 am and 4 am on Sunday that the 112 emergency control room in Palakkad received a chilling call. On the call was 30-year-old Shahida, from Pulakkad in Palakkad district, who told the police person that she had murdered her 6-year-old son Aamil, as a sacrifice to Allah. When a team of policemen headed by Assistant sub inspector George Harris reached the house, Shahida was waiting for them at the gate.
Seeing the blood on her, the police rushed inside the house and found the 6-year-old dead in the bathroom, his throat was slit. According to reports, Shahida’s husband Sulaiman and two other children were sleeping in the bedroom, and are believed to have been unaware of the murder. Shahida who is a teacher at a nearby madrasa is three months pregnant, according to reports. Sulaiman who previously worked in the Gulf now works as an auto-rickshaw driver in Palakkad.
As per the First Information Report filed at the Palakkad South station, the mother said she murdered her child as a sacrifice to ‘Allah’ in order to please him. She has been booked under section 302 (Punishment for murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
“What is mentioned in the FIR is what the mother told the police control room. Only after a thorough investigation can we conclude whether that was indeed the reason or whether there are other reasons,” Palakkad Superintendent of Police, Viswanadh R told TNM.
The SP added that currently arrest procedures were going on and only after that they would decide on doing a psychological evaluation.
The mother had an injury on her hand, according to police officials who had reached the spot.
Police officers said that they would conduct the investigation without any preconceived notions.
According to the police, more sections will be added during the course of investigation.A few neighbours said that Shahida had taken the contact number of the police station from one of them the previous day. A neighbour told news channels that the family was not superstitious. “As per what we know, the family did not have any issues,” another neighbour told Asianet News.
In yet another chilling murder of the same kind in Andhra Pradesh recently, two young women Alekhya (27) and Sai Divya (22) were bludgeoned to death by their parents V Padmaja and V Purushotham Naidu, both of whom are teachers. They told the police that they believed their daughters would reawaken a day later.