A mother of four drowning her two-month-old child in the Sursagar Lake in Vadodara and later ascribing it to her inability to buy medicines for the infant has shocked the city.

Also, to avoid any suspicion, she went to the police station to file a kidnapping complaint against an autorickshaw driver. But it was ultimately her five-year-old son who downed the curtain on this two-hour drama by telling the police that he saw his mother drown his baby sibling.

According to Inspector R P Sosya of the Navapura police, Gauri Kahar (35) of Kahar Mohalla approached him around noon with a kidnapping complaint.

She said an autorickshaw driver drove away with her child when she had stopped to buy milk. But before the police could investigate the matter, Kahar’s five year-old son, Pintu, accompanied by his uncle, Munna Kahar, reached the police station. “The boy told us that his mother threw the child in the Sursagar Lake. When we acted stern with the boy’s mother, she confessed to her crime,” said Sosya.

The Navapura police, accompanied by fire officials, dived into the lake and found the floating body of the infant boy after 15 minutes. “She said she did not have money to buy medicine for her sick child and had to kill him,” added Sosya.

At the time of the incident, Gauri’s husband, Mahendra Kahar, was on duty in Sardar Estate, where he worked as a watchman.

According to the fresh complaint filed later in the day with the Raopura police station, the Kahars have four children, including two girls. Gauri has been booked for murder.

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