Police: Mother Throws Son with Special Needs into Crocodile-Infested Waters in India

A woman in the Karnataka state of India is accused of tossing her six-year-old son, who had special needs, into a canal on Saturday where he was reportedly half-eaten by crocodiles.

Police said the incident allegedly happened after the woman, identified as Savitri, had a fight with her husband whose name is Ravi Kumar, NDTV reported Monday, noting they have another son who is two years old.

An image shows a woman who is reportedly the child’s mother:

The couple apparently fought often about the victim, identified as Vinod, who was deaf and mute from birth. Savitri claimed Ravi had repeatedly told her to kill their son.

The woman claimed, “My husband is responsible. He used to keep saying let the son die and that all he does is eat. Let him be, I’d say. If my husband keeps saying that, how much torture can my son endure? Where will I go share my pain.”

She is accused of taking her child to the canal that is located in Uttara Kannada and throwing him into the water.

Once the police were called, authorities searched overnight for the child. They found his body the next morning.

He had reportedly suffered severe injuries, which officials said indicated he had been mauled to death by one or more crocodiles, per the Daily Mail.

“A post mortem has been ordered to determine the six-year-old’s cause of death,” the outlet said, adding that officers are still investigating what happened.

The couple was arrested and a murder case brought against them, per the NDTV article.

In 2019, the Deccan Herald reported that there were over 1,000 children with special needs living in childcare institutions across India who were looking for a permanent home.

“As children get older, their adoption becomes more difficult as most parents, even if they opt for a special needs child, want somebody younger, said Anuj Singh, the superintendent of an orphanage in Delhi,” the article stated. It also noted that some adoptive parents even return their children because they find it hard to take care of them.

However, one woman, Prachi Kumar, told the outlet she chose to adopt a child with Down syndrome.

“I knew I could afford to give this baby better facilities than a childcare institution. In the last seven years, I haven’t regretted my decision even once. She was the best thing that happened to me,” she said, adding, “There needs to be awareness among parents that these children need the love and care of a home like any other child and people need to be counselled over it.”