A 36-year-old woman allegedly strangulated her 19-year-old disabled son and then hanged herself to death at their residence in Rajapur locality in West Bengal’s Howrah district on Monday.

The now-deceased woman’s 45-year-old husband had succumbed to COVID-19 on Saturday. Reportedly, his death had left her in a state of shock.

The woman’s husband, an employee of a private company, had developed a fever and was facing difficulty in breathing. On Saturday, he was taken to Uluberia sub-divisional hospital, where he succumbed after a few hours.

His father-in-law said that the medics took his samples for COVID-19 tests as he had symptoms of the infection. The results came in positive. Therefore, civic officials cremated his body on Monday as per the COVID-19 protocol. The woman and her son were not allowed to go near the man’s body. They saw his funeral from a distance.

After returning home, the mother-son duo locked the house from inside.  A relative came to their house with some food. He received no response despite knocking on the door multiple times.

“The neighbours were informed who broke the window and found that the woman had hanged herself. The son was lying on the floor. The police were soon informed,” a report by Hindustan Times quoted Soumya Roy, Superintendent of Police, Howrah (rural) as saying.

Police suspect that the woman might have strangulated her son and then committed suicide. Their bodies were sent for conducting post-mortem examination. Milan Halder, a local resident, said that the woman was shocked as she lost her husband. Therefore, she killed her son and then committed suicide.