2-yr-old was stabbed 20 times: Autopsy

POST-MORTEM examination of a woman and daughter found dead in east Delhi’s Mandawali on January 9 has revealed that the two-year-old girl was stabbed more than 20 times, while the woman, aged 25, was stabbed five times, police said. But a murder weapon is yet to be recovered, and police are yet to ascertain if the incident was a double murder, or if the woman, Geetanjali, murdered her daughter, Ananya, before taking her own life.

Police are looking at CCTV footage from the locality to get some leads. The bodies were found by the woman’s husband Mithilesh, a train driver, when he returned home from work. The couple, who married three years ago, hailed from Bihar and had moved into this flat about three months ago.

“The door of the house was locked from inside but a window was open. The throats of both victims were slit. A suicide note had been recovered, but it is possible that an attacker wrote it and left it there to mislead police,” said Omvir Singh Bishnoi, DCP (east district).

Investigators received a final autopsy report on Friday, which states that of the 20-plus stab wounds on the minor girl’s body, most are on her stomach, Bishnoi said. “It seems the girl was stabbed by a sharp-edged weapon. The mother’s injuries appear self-inflicted,” the sources said.

Several police teams of the east district, along with the Crime Branch, have been working round the clock to crack the case. “Despite scanning CCTV footage from the area, police have not found anything suspicious. A murder weapon is yet to be recovered,” sources said.

The purported suicide note suggests that the woman committed suicide after killing her daughter. According to the purported note, the woman had taken the extreme step due to personal reasons.

“I am committing suicide after killing my daughter. I have been suffering from depression due to my illness. No one is responsible for our death,” read the purported note, written in Hindi. However, according to police, it does not appear that the woman was suffering from a prolonged illness.