Man arrested for killing wife and son, making it look like suicide

MUMBAI: A man, Shivshankar Datta, was arrested for murdering his wife and son, making it appear as a suicide, due to suspicions of infidelity.

MUMBAI: The police on Tuesday arrested a 40-year-old man for killing his wife and eight-year-old son in their house in Kandivali and then making it look like they had died by suicide. The police will produce the accused, Shivshankar Sukendra Datta, before a court in Borivali on Wednesday to demand his custody.

Man arrested for killing wife and son, making it look like suicide

According to the police, Datta strangled his wife, Pushpa, to death because he suspected she was having an extramarital affair. He then allegedly went on to kill his son, who had witnessed the murder, by strangulating him as well. Datta then hanged both their bodies with a rope to make it look like they had died by suicide, before fleeing, said the police.

Shivshankar, Pushpa and their eight-year-old son, who wasn’t named by the police, lived in Saraswati Chawl in Kandivali East. Shivshankar worked as a tempo driver, while Pushpa was a homemaker. Their son was a class 2 student. According to their neighbours, the couple had a fraught relationship and used to fight quite often.

Shivshankar initially told the police that when he returned home around 12.30 pm on Monday and knocked on the door, Pushpa didn’t open it for a long time. He said that he then broke the door open with the help of neighbours and entered the house, only to find his wife and son hanging. The duo were rushed to Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivali, where doctors declared them dead.

After recording Shivshankar’s statement, the Samant Nagar police station registered an accidental death report, assuming that Pushpa first strangled her son to death and then died by suicide. However, during the investigation, the police became suspicious of Shivshankar’s behaviour and felt he was trying to mislead them. Suspecting foul play, they took him into custody for questioning.

During the interrogation, Shivshankar confessed to killing Pushpa and his son, said the police. He allegedly told the police he suspected his wife was having an extramarital affair, which led to fights between them. And then, in a fit of rage on Monday, he strangled Pushpa with a nylon rope before hanging her with the same rope. He then strangled his son with another nylon rope as he had witnessed the murder, and went on to hang the child’s body too, the police added.

“We have arrested Datta for the murders and will produce him before the court on Wednesday,” said an officer from the Samta Nagar police station.