In the emotionally harrowing case that has left communities spanning the Karnataka-Maharashtra border gape, it has been alleged that the father killed his six-year-old son due to suspicion concerning his paternity and left his remains in the Krishna River, both foul and shameful.
A terrible crime that brought anger and sadness it highlighted the self-destructive power of unchecked suspicion and dishonesty. Mallikarjun Arekeri lives in Nagathane village in Vijayapura district. He also lived with his wife, Bhagyashree, and a young son, Siddharth.
Police said the father had doubts that the boy was his, based largely on statements from acquaintances that the boy looked nothing like him. What had started as a nascent suspicion has escalated into fights between the couple more than once in the past 1.5 years, according to the reporting.
Rather than receiving final results from the evidence of science like a DNA test, the accused have decided to let these doubts develop an obsession and an unforgivable brutality to its logical extreme conclusion. Mallikarjun allegedly informed his wife on 16 March that he was taking their son to school. First he dressed the boy in fresh clothes and took him from the village of Vijayapura to Karad (a city in the bordering state of Maharashtra).
There, around Vadoli Bhikeshwar, he succeeded in extracting the innocent child from the riverside water toward the Krishna, where he shoved him into the moving water. The child was drowned, and the accused proceeded with the pretense that nothing ever happened. An unknown child’s body was recovered from a riverbank by the Karad Police on 18 March.
Meantime, the accused lied to his wife by claiming that their son had been accepted into a hostel. Recurring questions and unhelpful remarks on April 1, the child’s birthday, helped to intensify the suspicions. Horrified with his behavior, the mother called law enforcement and reported him missing.
Karnataka later opened its joint examination with technical surveillance and tracking of mobile phones owned and operated by the police in Maharashtra. The whereabouts of the said phone tracked to Karad at the time, authorities said. When confronted strongly, the suspect immediately told police that he committed the crime and had killed his son because for weeks he had suspected his paternity.
Officials said the act was premeditated and extremely brutal, adding that the child was murdered merely on suspicion, not evidence. Police arrested the suspect and brought him to the crime scene for investigation. The case, officials said, will be taken seriously and strict legal measures will be taken to stem it in the future. The victim is in Nagathane village in mourning the terrible event.
In addition to the loss we are experiencing now, it raises very serious questions of social stigma, misinformation, and the importance, for the authorities, for greater visibility on scientific solutions for people like DNA tests to combat these doubts. This tragic case is a chilling example of the devastating impact that unchecked suspicion and societal expectation can have on the lives of innocent children.
