RANNI: The mother of a 27-day-old baby boy was arrested on Monday for killing him by banging his head against the wall, police said. The arrested woman has been identified as Neendoor native Blessy Thomas, wife of Ranni native Benny Xavier.

According to the police, the premature baby was regularly ill and his incessant crying prompted Blessy to commit the crime.

The incident occurred on December 9. The child was taken to a hospital here at 11 AM on that day and was brought back home with medicine prescribed by the doctors, police said.

Subsequently, the infant's condition worsened during the day and the baby was rushed to a taluk hospital where he died.

Thereafter, a case was registered based on the statement given by Father Joji Thomas who ran an ashram where Blessy worked as a kitchen worker and lived with Benny, police said.

After the postmortem on December 10, a police officer spoke to the police surgeon and found out that the child had injuries to the back of the head.

The damage was not recognisable or visible due to the thin skull of the infant, the police said and added that the official then met the child's parents and questioned them.

As the woman showed some mental discomfort, she was not questioned in detail and on making enquiries about the couple, the police found they had met each other over the phone and started living together at the ashram.

Benny, the infant's father was already married to another woman and Blessy was living with him while aware about this fact, the police said.

The police said subsequent enquiries revealed that Blessy herself had killed the child and she was arrested.

Blessy was studying at a private institute in Kottayam when she met Benny over the phone, and she decided to kill the child as a sick infant would be detrimental to her further studies, police said.