Cops: Woman killed toddler to scuttle wedding of her lover
SINISTER DESIGN Two-year-old was found dead in washing machine at accused’s house
JALANDHAR:A 32-year-old married woman arrested in Kapurthala on Wednesday for killing a toddler did so to scuttle the wedding of victim’s maternal uncle with whom she was in an extramarital relation, police said.
Two-year-old Adiraj Singh of Farid Sarai village in Sultanpur Lodhi was found dead in the washing machine at accused Mandeep Kaur’s house on Tuesday at Khukhrana village in Kapurthala. The boy was there with his parents to attend the wedding of his maternal uncle Gagandeep Singh.
Police said Mandeep was having an extramarital affair with Gagandeep and was not happy that he was getting married. Gagandeep has a criminal record, police said. Mandeep wanted to scuttle the wedding. Police said villagers were aware of their affair as families of Mandeep and Gagandeep were at loggerheads over the issue.
Police said the toddler was playing along with two other children, Gurnoor Singh and Arshdeep Kaur, in the afternoon and they went to Mandeep’s house and Adiraj went missing. Police said the accused made the boy unconscious, dumped him in the washing machine and covered it with clothes.
The family members informed the police after they could not find the toddler till evening. After scanning the CCTV camera footage, police found that two out of three children came out of the Mandeep’s house and Adiraj was not there. Police then searched the house and found the toddler’s body in the washing machine. The boy was then taken to Kapurthala civil hospital where he was declared brought dead. The postmortem was conducted by a board of doctors constituted by the civil surgeon.
On the complaint of victim’s mother Sunita Rani, Mandeep has been booked under Section 302 (murder) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) at Kotwali police station in Kapurthala.
Kapurthala deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Harinder Singh said the accused will be produced in a court on Thursday.