A 59-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly killing his nine-year-old son by stuffing a paper ball into his mouth in Maharashtra's Thane district, police said on Wednesday.

The accused was inebriated at the time of the incident which took place at Washala in Kasara area under Sahapur taluka on the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday, they said, adding the exact reason behind the crime was not yet known.

The man and his wife had been living separately following domestic quarrels and the boy was staying with his mother, an official from the police control room said.

The boy went missing from his mother's house on Monday and the family members launched a search for him.

The minor was found dead near his father's house at around 8 am on Tuesday, the official said.

After being alerted, police rushed to the spot and they found a paper ball stuffed into the boy's mouth and blood oozing out of his nose, he said.

An investigation suggested the man resorted to excessive alcohol consumption after his wife started living separately, the official said.

He consumed liquor on the intervening night of Monday-Tuesday and allegedly stuffed a ball, made from torn notebook papers, into the boy's mouth resulting in his death, he said.

Following a complaint by a relative of the deceased, the accused was arrested on Tuesday night and booked under Indian Penal Code section 302 (murder), the official said.

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