MP teen death mystery: SIT detects ‘suicide’, mother still in jail for murder

BHOPAL: For nearly two months, a woman in jail in MP’s Guna on charges of murdering her 14-year-old son, kept pleading that she was innocent. Her husband, too, backed her publicly, dismissing the police claim that she killed the boy because he objected to her 'clothes and bindi'. Now, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) has cleared her.
The SIT believes the boy died by suicide, possibly driven by academic stress.
The murder charges were pressed against her following the post-mortem report, which indicated 'strangulation,' although police failed to mention a clear motive at the time of her arrest. Her husband’s determined effort to prove her innocence led to the formation of an SIT, which overturned the initial assumptions. Police are now preparing to file a dismissal report in the case.
On the evening of Feb 14, 2025, the Class 8 student was found hanging from a towel hanger in the bathroom of their home. The door was locked from inside. His mother, who had gone out to play badminton, returned around 7. 45pm and found the door locked. After obtaining a spare key from the landlord, she entered the bathroom and found her son dead.
The district hospital’s post-mortem report indicated strangulation, which led police to treat the case as a murder.
An FIR was filed on Feb 22, and after preliminary investigations, the mother was arrested on March 8 and remanded in jail. However, Alka maintained her innocence throughout the investigation.
Alka’s husband, a bank auditor, raised concerns about the investigation, and filed a complaint with the Director General of Police (DGP). As a result, DIG Amit Sanghi ordered the formation of an SIT to re-examine the case.
“Since the matter is in the court, we cannot disclose the SIT’s finding. We conducted a very minute investigation into the matter and will take necessary action,” Sanghi told TOI.
According to sources SIT had sought a second medicolegal opinion from Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal, which concluded that the cause of death was ‘partial hanging’.
Also, call records from the mother’s phone showed she was on calls throughout the time of her son’s death, with only a 20-minute gap, making it improbable that she could have committed the crime and staged the scene within such a short window. Investigations also revealed that the door was locked from inside, and the key was found inside the house, indicating no external involvement.
The SIT found that the boy was struggling with studies. He had failed two subjects and scored only 28 marks out of 80 in his Hindi exam on the day of his death. Investigators believe academic pressure led to the suicide.
Had the husband not solidly backed his wife and demanded a fresh probe, she may have spent years behind bars with the stigma of murdering their son. He disputed the police version, insisting that his wife had no motive to harm their son.
He was away in Bhopal on the day of the murder but had spoken with both of them over phone. He recalled that his son was in high spirits, and there was no indication of any issues between mother and son.
The father questioned police's investigation, particularly their delayed response to the crime scene and alleged ‘mishandling of critical evidence’. He demanded that CCCV footage of nearby areas be checked. His persistence led to the formation of an SIT that eventually cleared his wife.