A 25-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar was arrested on Tuesday for killing her four-year-old niece and attempting to murder her sister-in-law. According to the police, to carry out the act, the accused, identified as Mana, drugged her entire family by mixing sleeping pills into their tea. Investigation has revealed that she was angered by her sister-in-law as she constantly stopped her from talking to her boyfriend over the phone.
The incident unfolded late on Monday night in Basikala village of Muzaffarnagar. The 25-year-old first drugged her family and then locked her four-year-old niece into a water tank. The child drowned as a result. Then, the accused stabbed her sleeping sister-in-law multiple times, with the intention of killing her. However, the sister-in-law, identified as Firdaus, survived the attack.
Moreover, Firdaus’s three other children also sustained knife injuries when their aunt attacked their mother.
Hearing the commotion, villagers rushed to the scene to find Firdaus covered in blood and writhing in pain. They also noticed that her four-year-old daughter was missing from the house. Soon after, they informed the police, who arrived at the scene with a dog squad and a forensic team. Upon searching the house, police discovered the body of the child floating in the water tank.
Mana was detained due to suspicion, and upon interrogation, she confessed to the crime. She told police that she had been in a longstanding relationship with a man from her village. When her family learnt of this, they got her married to someone else. During this time, Mana’s boyfriend moved to Chennai for a job opportunity, and they would continue talking over the phone. However, according to Mana, her sister-in-law never allowed her to talk to him. This enraged her, leading the 25-year-old to hatch a plan to kill Firdaus.
Firdaus is currently undergoing treatment at a hospital in Meerut. Meanwhile, her daughter’s body has been sent for postmortem examination.
SSP Muzaffarnagar Sanjay Kumar Verma said that Mana showed no remorse during questioning. “Last night around 2-2:30 am, we received information about the abduction of a small girl. Police arrived at the location, conducted a thorough search, and found the girl’s body in the water tank inside the house. Upon further questioning, Mana confessed to the crime and explained her motivation. She has been sent to jail under section 103 BNS,” he added.
The senior police officer said that Mana had been in a relationship with her boyfriend for nearly three years. “During the interrogation, she told us that her sister-in-law (bhabhi) had forcibly arranged her wedding to someone else even though she didn’t want to marry there. Furthermore, Firdaus would forbid Mana from speaking to her boyfriend, and would scold her when caught doing so. This led to the accused developing feelings of extreme anger towards her sister-in-law,” he added.
SSP Verma said that Mana had mixed as many as 16 sleeping pills into the tea she served to her family members. Also, she had been plotting to kill her sister-in-law for nearly a month.
– Ends
(Inputs from Sandeep Saini)
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