Police in Guntur town in Andhra Pradesh have arrested Pappula Subba Reddy and his wife Subbulu on charges of killing their teenaged son for his unruly ways.
The couple, booked in a case of filicide, was produced before a magistrate on Saturday.
They will be produced in the local court on December 13.
The couple confessed to killing their second son, 15-year-old Ravindra Reddy, saying that they were vexed with his unruly behaviour.
For the last seven to eight years, Ravindra Reddy had turned habitual offender, resorting to thefts in neighbouring houses.
The victims used to complain to his parents.
Due to this, the hapless parents were forced to move house several times.
They had handed over the boy to the police on several occasions hoping it would teach him a lesson and he would change.
But each time, the police beat him and let him off.
Recalling the killing, the couple said that some days ago victims of his latest theft came to their house and abused them.
Unable to bear the mental agony due to their son's misdeeds and frustrated at not being able to reform him, they took him to some nearby fields on the night of December 9 and tried to kill him by poisoning him.
When the boy refused to consume the pesticide, they held him and strangled him to death with a noose.
The parents surrendered at Lalapet police station on December 10.
The 42-year-old Subba Reddy had left his native Markapuram town in Prakasam district to work as a casual labourer in Guntur.