Mumbai:
Frustration at being married to a BEST driver against her wish for six years led to a 23-year-old woman killing her three-year-old son before slashing her wrist in Koparkhairane on Sunday evening.
Police say the woman may have taken the extreme step of strangling her son and slitting his throat to get back at her husband. She is currently recuperating at a Navi Mumbai hospital.
Varsha Godke was married to Shashikant in 2004 but was unhappy in the marriage and wanted to end it.
While working at a mall in the western suburbs, she had allegedly also fallen in a love with a colleague and eloped with him.
She had been away for six months before her family coaxed her into getting back with Shashikant.
"While she obliged, she wasn't happy with the arrangement and would continually quarrel with her husband over small things.
She is also slightly mentally unstable which added to the complication," said an officer from the Koparkhairane police.
According to the police, Godke had fought with her husband on Sunday morning and was in a very bad mood.
When her son, Saurabh, came back from his playschool and asked for food that afternoon, she took him to the bathroom, where she had allegedly hidden a knife. She locked the door and strangulated her son, killing him on the spot. She took the knife, slashed his throat and then her own wrist.
Her mother, who was in the house, began to knock on the door when Godke did not come out for a long time.
She panicked and called in the neighbours, who broke down the door only to find Saurabh dead and Godke lying unconscious on the floor. The police were informed and Godke was rushed to the NMC hospital, where she is recovering.
"We have booked Godke for murder and attempted suicide and will arrest her after she gets discharged," said Senior Inspector Arun Walture of the Koparkhairane police station.