Assam man dies by suicide after strangling minor son to death: Police

A 35-year-old man from Assam’s Biswanath district allegedly killed himself after strangling his seven-year-old son to death, the police said, adding that the person’s body was found hanging in an abandoned house on Friday morning.
The incident came to light on Thursday evening when the police recovered the body of the boy from Gohpur area of the district. Police said they received information from family members and recovered the body from the house.
“The family members alleged that the kid’s father strangled him to death. However, the accused was absconding by then,” a senior police official said.
The officer told HT that the father was struggling with mental health issues, and he allegedly killed his son in the absence of other family members.
“The mother said that she had gone to the market and upon her return, she found the hanging body of her son. The body was rushed to a government hospital, where the doctors confirmed his demise,” the official said.
After the son’s death, the mother lodged a complaint against the father, but he was absconding. His hanging body was found nearly three kilometres away from his house in the wee hours of Friday.
An investigating officer told HT that as per the initial probe, it appeared to be a case of suicide. “We have sent the bodies for postmortem and the cause of death of both father and the son will be ascertained once we get the report,” the officer said.
The family members told the police that the father was facing “difficult times” and his behaviour was ‘not normal’ for the past few months.
“We knew that he was suffering, and his anger was increasing day by day. We never expected that it could reach that level where he could kill his own son,” they told media persons.
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