MUMBAI: Unable to bear the torture that his mother faced regularly at the hands of his alcoholic father, a college-going boy allegedly murdered him in cold blood at their Kandivali East home on Thursday.
The 16-year-old later surrendered before the Samta Nagar police. In a heart-wrenching statement to the police, his mother said that years of physical and mental abuse that her husband inflicted on her, in both her sons' presence, had sparked hatred for him in their minds.
The woman's 46-year-old husband worked as a contractor. The woman and her older son, aged 20, are employed in private companies.
The woman told the police that her husband started drinking soon after they got married in 1997.
"He became short-tempered and started picking fights with me over trivial reasons. As years passed, he started beating me up besides verbal abuse. I did not separate from him for the sake of my sons," she said in her statement to the police.
The woman said her husband soon started to suspect her fidelity and his behaviour grew worse.
On Wednesday evening, the woman's husband returned home with liquor bottles. Around 8.30pm, their older son came home from work to find his father yelling. He asked his father to stop the ruckus but he paid no attention.
"The woman's husband had grabbed her neck and was banging her head on the wall. The boy tried to intervene and pull away his father, but he was pushed into a corner," a police officer said. The boy then picked up an iron hammer and bludgeoned his father who collapsed near the bathroom.
Around 11 pm, she woke up to find her older son sprinkling water on her face. Her older son hugged the younger son as they sat on the bed for a while before locking up the house and heading to the police station.
(identities kept confidential as the accused is a minor)
