On January 6, 2023, in Mangawan, Rewa district, Madhya Pradesh, 25-year-old Priya Gupta allegedly strangled her two-and-a-half-month-old son, Lakshya (also known as Dhairya). Following the incident, she allegedly told her family and husband, Prakash Gupta, that the baby died accidentally after milk got trapped in his nose and throat. Believing her account, the family buried the infant. Two months later, Prakash Gupta returned from Uttarakhand and spoke with his younger brother, Vikas Gupta, who highlighted five major discrepancies, including an empty laundry bin, altered routine, absence of morning crying, immediate surrender of the body without emotional distress, and blood rather than milk coming from the infant's nose during attempted resuscitation. Prakash subsequently contacted his wife from Uttarakhand, falsely claiming he had consulted a spiritual healer (Baba) who revealed the truth. During the recorded phone call, Priya allegedly admitted to pressing the baby's mouth and neck, expressing no remorse and threatening suicide if Prakash informed his family. Prakash presented the audio recording to the Town Inspector. On March 28, 2023, authorities exhumed the child's body for an autopsy. After persistent follow-ups by the family, the Superintendent of Police ordered forensic validation of the audio recording on December 3, 2024. Following the investigation, police arrested Priya Gupta on July 6, 2025, and a local court remanded her to Rewa Central Jail.
Country: India
State/Province: Madhya Pradesh, India
City/Region: Mangawan
Incident Type: Family Homicide
Relationship Status: Married
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Incident Date: Jan. 6, 2023
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2023-01-06
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English labels are shown first. Original-language titles are preserved for source verification.
Crime Tak - India · Original language: Hindi
मां ने मासूम बेटे का किया मर्डर,पति से बोली गले में दूध अटकने से हुई मौत, 2 महीने बाद ऐसे खुली पोल
Domestic Conflict
The incident demonstrates severe emotional escalation and displaced aggression arising from financial and marital friction. Distanced geographically from her husband—who worked in Uttarakhand—the accused reportedly felt intense anger over his transfer of Rs 1 lakh to his brother for a land purchase and his failure to answer her calls. When her infant vomited, her intense frustration was directed at the child, resulting in lethal strangulation followed by a deceptive cover-up.
The initial police stance treated the death as an accidental choking based on family reporting and immediate burial. The case pivoted when the victim's father produced a recorded telephone conversation containing an explicit confession. Following formal petitions to senior officers, the body was exhumed on March 28, 2023, and forensic analysis of the audio recording was mandated on December 3, 2024, culminating in the suspect's arrest on July 6, 2025.
Initial investigation was thwarted because the suspect claimed the child died due to milk clogging his airway, prompting the grieving family to bury the body without notifying law enforcement. Misdirection continued for months until circumspective observations by the victim's uncle and a recorded confession exposed the crime.
Reconstruction indicates that on the night of January 6, 2023, anger triggered by a domestic financial dispute led Priya Gupta to strangle her infant son for approximately five minutes. She concealed the crime until morning, attributing the death to accidental milk aspiration. Months later, physical anomalies noted by the uncle and a recorded telephonic lure orchestrated by the father forced a confession, leading to exhumation, forensic voice testing, and eventual arrest.
The case highlights extreme situational risk factors where unaddressed domestic resentment, financial disputes, and geographic isolation converge into lethal violence against a highly vulnerable dependent. The offender displayed calculated deception post-incident, threatening self-harm to coerce silence, indicating high emotional volatility and manipulative control.
Unverified claims of infant accidental death should be scrutinized when physical or behavioral anomalies exist. Telephonic recordings and circumstantial observations by family members proved crucial in overriding initial misdirection in a domestic homicide.
Discrepancies noted by the child's uncle served as early signals: an empty laundry bin indicating the baby died at night rather than morning, the lack of expected morning crying, an uncharacteristic break in the mother's evening routine, her lack of emotional resistance when handing over the body, and blood discharge from the baby's nose during CPR.
The pivotal clue was the recorded phone call in which the father feigned consulting a spiritual healer, scaring the mother into confessing that she had pressed the baby's mouth and neck.
Key evidence included the exhumed body autopsy findings, forensic validation of the audio call recording, and witness statements regarding physical anomalies at the scene.
Vikas Gupta, the child's uncle, reported observing blood from the infant's nose during CPR, an empty laundry bin, an altered evening routine by the mother, and a distinct lack of emotional grieving during the body's handover.
Follow-up reports altered the narrative from an unfortunate accidental infant choking incident to a premeditated domestic homicide based on exhumation findings and forensic audio verification.
It remains legally pending how the trial court will weigh the forensic audio analysis and exhumation findings regarding the suspect's defense claims of accidental death.