The body of a three-year-old boy was exhumed by the Navalgund taluk police on Thursday after his mother lodged a complaint accusing their neighbor of “foul play”, police said.

Sub-inspector Bhatralli said the boy, Yellappa, a resident of Yamanur village, died on November 8 “under suspicious circumstances”.

On November 11, his mother filed a complaint accusing her neighbour, Nagalinga Jogi, of being behind the boy’s death.

In the complaint, Shantha said her son’s death was no accident and accused Jogi of having a long-standing grudge against her family, fueling her suspicions about his involvement.

“Nagalinga has held a grudge against us for decades,” she said, describing the accidental fall explanation as dubious.

He said, “Nagalinga handed over Yellappa’s body to Shantha on November 8, stating that a sowing equipment fell on him around 4 pm. The family went ahead with cremation rites without notifying the authorities.”

“Based on her complaint, we obtained permission from the sub-divisional magistrate to exhume the body for investigation. Dr Santosh Kumar of KIMS conducted the post-mortem,” he said.

The exhumation was carried out at 7 am on Thursday with Navalagund tehsildar Sudhir Sahukar and sub-inspector Janardhana Bhatralli supervising the proceedings.

Bhatralli also said that a case of unnatural death was registered on November 11 based on the complaint lodged by Shantha.