Kendrapara, Aug. 18: A 35-year-old woman has been arrested on charge of murdering her three-month-old nephew at Chasakhanda village of the district.

The accused, Sashmita Moharana, who was arrested yesterday, suspected that her spouse, Anadi Charan Sahu, had developed an extramarital relationship with her sister-in-law. Consequently, she decided to kill her husband's alleged paramour's baby on August 11.

"Sashmita, who was unrepentant, strangled the baby and dumped the body into a water container to ensure that the victim did not survive," said Derabish police station inspector Niranjan Sabar.

The accused, booked under sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code, was today remanded to jail custody after a local court rejected her bail application, the police said.

Family members of the deceased spotted the infant's body in the water container on August 11.

It was later buried after the parents and relatives had thought it to be a case of accident.

But smelling foul play, the child's mother Manjulata Sahu lodged a police complaint on August 12, alleging that her son had been killed.

Acting on the complaint, the police exhumed the body in the presence of executive magistrate. Later, it was sent for post-mortem.

"Initially, we failed to establish whether it was a case of unnatural death or murder. The accused, named in the complaint, was later detained and thoroughly interrogated," said Sabar.

"However, the murder was corroborated on the basis of findings of the post-mortem report. The baby was strangled which led to its death. Besides, circumstantial evidence also provided ample clues to attest that the baby had been murdered. During a thorough interrogation, the accused confessed to the crime," Sabar said.