Thursday, July 28 2005 17:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: An Indian doctor has been detained in the US State of Ohio for allegedly killing her mother, police said.

28-year-old Malar Balasubramanian, a paediatrician, was picked up by police from a roadside at Blue Ash in Ohio, yesterday (July 27, 2005) morning.

The woman was found walking on the side of a suburban Cincinnati road wearing a T-shirt and underwear. She had cuts and bruises and appeared to be heavily medicated, police said.

When police encountered her, Malar, who trained as a doctor at Children's Hospital of Pittsburg, told them that there was someone in a car who needed help.

Police located the car in a nearby parking lot and found the body of her mother, 53-year-old Saroja Balasubramanian, covered with a blanket in the back seat of the vehicle.

Earlier Saroja was reported missing by her other daughter Sumathi, who, police said, found an e-mail on her mother's computer which appeared like a suicide note.

Sumathi told police that her father died last year and her mother was "very depressed."

Malar was being treated at an Ohio hospital and police said she would be charged with aggravated murder upon her release.

The Hamilton County Coroner's office was investigating the cause of Saroja's death, but police said evidence collected at the scene indicated that she was a homicide victim.