Raipur, Sep 17 (IANS): A man believed to be suffering from a mental ailment strangled his three-year-old son to death and sat with the body inside a locked room for five hours in Chhattisgarh's Balod district, police said Monday.

The incident took place Sunday at Balod's Dhaneli village, about 100 km from here. Tikam Sahu was arrested after the villagers informed police about the incident.

No one was at home when Sahu took his youngest son to his room and locked it from inside, a police official said. He then strangulated the child, put him on his lap and sat inside the room for nearly five hours.

He refused to open the room when his wife Anusuiya Bai returned from the fields in the evening. She then called her neighbours for help.

When people entered the room they saw the child lying dead in Tikam Sahu's lap, police said.

According to villagers, Tikam had been suffering from a mental ailment for a while but appeared to be healthy for the last month. He stayed at home to look after the children while his wife worked in the fields.