US mum: I kept son's body in ice for rites

A Texan woman accused of killing her son said she packed his body in ice to honour Hindu traditions.

Pallavi Dhawan, 38, from the suburb of Frisco, near Dallas, said this in an affidavit earlier this week. She is denying that she killed her 10-year-old son Arnav at their home on Jan 29.

"I loved Arnav with all my heart and never would hurt him in any way," she wrote.

She is facing murder charges after the police said she confessed earlier to killing the boy when the police visited her home, New York Daily News reported.

Pallavi said the boy had died in his sleep four days earlier. She said she performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him. For four days, she wrote, she followed Hindu traditions by preserving Arnav's body with ice and reading Hindu scriptures over his body.