Hazaribagh, April 23: The 24-hour high drama over the dead body of a married woman petered out today in an anti-climax when the deceased’s mother arrived from Kanpur and withdrew charges that her daughter was killed by her son-in-law.

The body of Sunita Bansal, who had allegedly committed suicide, lay in the crematorium for over 24 hours after her relatives called up the police, here, suspecting foul play.

The police consequently ordered Abhay Bansal not to cremate the dead body and wait for the arrival of his in-laws.

In cases involving women burning to death, husbands have often been arrested on suspicion, even sent to jail before being acquitted after long-drawn trials in court.

In this case, the husband owes his freedom to his 12-year-old son, who stood by his father from the beginning and told police that it was his mother who was at fault.

Bansal, a trader, and his twelve-year-old son, Rajat, stood guard over the decaying body till Bansal’s in-laws arrived here today and satisfied themselves about his innocence.

While they spoke to the neighbours as well as Bansal, what tilted the scale was the testimony of the 12-year-old boy.

Rajat had all along maintained that his mother had committed suicide by setting herself on fire.

She had a mercurial temper and often quarrelled with his father , threatening to commit suicide and implicate him in her suicide note, he had claimed yesterday.

Today he repeated the claim before his maternal grandmother and apparently succeeded in convincing her that his father was innocent.

The relatives of the deceased then relented and allowed the body to be cremated and gave the go-ahead to the father-son duo for completing her last rites.

Recalling the evening of April 21, the 12-year-old boy declared that his father had rushed up after spotting smoke emanating from their rented flat.

But by then his mother had suffered severe burn injuries.

She was immediately taken to the sadar hospital, from where she was referred to Ranchi.

But she died on the way.

Mother of the deceased acknowledged that Sunita was impulsive and ill-tempered and she declared that she no longer had any complaint against her son-in-law.

Police officials said their investigation too confirmed that it was a case of suicide.

“But we shall wait for the post-mortem report before closing the case,” they added.