Police in Zomba have arrested a 23 year old man, Batumeo Mcheka for attempting to kill his child for rituals.

The suspect was arrested after his wife, Eliza Lakesi, reported that her husband was trying to remove the victim’s umbilical cord using a needle.

Confirming the development, Zomba Police Publicist, Sergeant Patricia Sipiliano said Eliza Lakesi heard a strange crying from her two year old child who was in the hands of her husband when she was in the maize field.

Sipiliano said the wife rushed to the scene to establish what caused the strange cry from her baby and found her husband with the child inside the house.

Eliza tried to check her baby and found that her husband had pierced the umbilical cord of the baby with a sewing needle.

Sipiliano said the mother took the victim to Matiya Health Centre where the doctor also confirmed after a minor operation that she had been pierced with a sewing needle and she later reported the issue to Jali Police Station after which the suspect was arrested.

The suspect revealed before Police Officers that he was advised by a certain witch doctor to kill his child with a needle through umbilical cord in order to get rich quickly.

Batumeo Mcheka who has been charged of attempted murder, hails from Mwanapiye village in the area of Traditional A