TN woman kills 6-year-old stepdaughter

... her husband asked her to terminate the pregnancy as they already had two children. That fuelled Suryakala’s hatred for Raghavi.

Police official

CHENNAI: A 26-year-old woman has been arrested for killing her stepdaughter by throwing the six-year-old from the third floor of their apartment building on Tuesday evening.

The woman has confessed to the crime and has been booked for murder.

According to Selaiyur police station inspector Y Srinivasan, the accused, Suryakala, a resident of Sembakkam on the outskirts of Chennai, had married Parthiban in 2017 after the latter’s first wife died. The couple has a one-year-old boy while Parthiban had a daughter, Raghavi, from his first marriage.

“On Tuesday evening, Parthiban was at a friend’s where he learnt that Raghavi had been missing for a while. He returned home to find a weeping Suryakala who claimed that the child had been missing since 2 pm. After an hour-long search, he found his daughter’s body near the apartment building and assumed she must have fallen down,” said a police officer who reached the crime spot first.

However, police grew suspicious following Suryakala’s contradictory statements. Tuesday was a holiday due to Vijayadashami and Raghavi, a Class – I student, was at home with her stepmother.

“Suryakala, who disliked Raghavi, first hit her on her forehead with a stone. When the girl collapsed, Suryakala took her to the third floor and hurled her down to make it look like an accidental death,” police said. The girl died as a result of the fall, police said.

Police also retrieved the CCTV footage from a nearby apartment complex. In the footage, Suryakala can be seen moving outside the apartment.

“Suryakala confessed that she had recently got pregnant for a second time. But her husband asked her to terminate the pregnancy as they already had two children. That fuelled Suryakala’s hatred for Raghavi. We have taken the accused for a medical check-up to see if she is being truthful about her pregnancy,” a police officer said.

Raghavi’s body has been sent for a post-mortem to Chrompet Government Hospital.

“It is an open and shut case of murder since the accused has confessed to the crime. We have booked an FIR under IPC section 302 (Punishment for murder) against the arrested. We will produce Suryakala before a local court seeking remand to aid further investigation,” inspector Srinivasan said.