Mom strangles minor daughter over suspicion of sexual relationship with her dad

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In a shocking crime, the Kharghar police have arrested a 36-year-old mother for strangling her 16-year-old daughter to death over suspicion that the girl was having a sexual relationship with her husband. The accused is a home maker and her husband is a civil contractor. The couple had four children, two of whom lived with them - the victim and her 12-year-old brother. The other two children, a 20-year-old daughter and a 14-year-old son - resided in their hometown of Rajasthan.

Senior inspector Dilip Kale said, "The accused allegedly strangulated her daughter with her dupatta inside their flat around 10.30am on March 4. At 1.45pm, her husband returned home for lunch. When he saw their daughter in the bedroom, his wife told him that she was fast asleep. Then, around 4pm, she called and informed him that their daughter was motionless. He rushed home to find her dead. By around 7pm, their relatives began to gather at their residence and called the police. Since there were strangulation marks on the girl's neck, we suspected foul play. Initially, we registered an accidental death case but sent her body for post-mortem to the Panvel rural hospital."

He added, "The victim's parents took her body to their native place in Rajasthan where they conducted her last rites. Since the post-mortem report revealed the cause of death as choking, we registered a murder case and started a probe." To investigate the girl's death further, the cops spoke to the victim's schoolmates who told them that the girl had allegedly told her that her mother had been assaulting her for the past few months as she suspected that the victim was having a sexual relationship with her father. She added that the victim told her that the accused had even threatened to either kill her or her husband reported the Times of India

The victim's schoolmates also told cops that she had tried to commit suicide in February by drinking phenyl and was planning to jump off the terrace of her building's terrace as she was unable to bear the abuse by her mother. Once the victim's parents returned from Rajasthan, after performing her last rights, the police summoned them to the police station where the mother was grilled. She eventually confessed to her crime and said that her daughter was ill mannered and use to hit her whenever she was scolded.

As per senior inspector Dilip Kale, "When the accused beat her up a day after the festival of Holi, the girl retaliated and her mother ended up strangulating her with a dupatta." The police are now probing to see if the father was an accomplice to the crime and protected his wife, despite having knowledge of the girl's death. Inspector Kale added, "We will probe his role in the crime. As of now, we have registered an FIR under the Indian Penal Code's Section 302 (punishment for murder) against the accused woman. She was produced before the Panvel magistrate court on Thursday and has been remanded to police custody till March 27."

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