A 28-year-old farmer, who is out on bail for allegedly abetting his wife's suicide, today allegedly set his 11-month-old son afire and later buried the body in his farm here as he wanted to remarry.
The farmer Tamil Selvan, a resident of Jamin Elampillai village, was recently released on bail from prison where he was lodged on charges of abetting his wife's suicide, police said.
He today went to his father-in-law's house and forcibly took his second son along with him to his farm, where he murdered the child, they said.
After committing the crime, he lodged a missing complaint with the police.
However, during interrogation, he confessed to having killed the child as he wanted to remarry, police said.
His wife had committed suicide last year.
In her dying declaration, she had mentioned that she was "harassed" by her husband for giving "birth to the second child", police said.
The body of the child was exhumed and sent to Salem Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Government Hospital for postmortem.
