Ludhiana: Mother, stepfather held for killing 9-year-old girl

Kuldip Bhatia

Ludhiana, June 22

A woman, Pinky, and her husband Narinder Pal, residents of Mullanpur Road, Humbran, allegedly killed their nine-year-old daughter by strangling her on the intervening night of June 19 and 20 in a bid to pocket Rs 90,000 of the insurance policy purchases in her name in 2018.

Autopsy revealed death by strangulation

Initially, the police were treating it as a case of natural death and had lodged a report under Section 174 of the CrPC on June 20 on the statement of Pinky. But the finding of the post-mortem report that the girl had died due to strangulation turned the natural death into a cold-blooded murder and accordingly both Pinky and her husband Narinder Pal were booked under Sections 302, 120-B, 182 and 34 of the IPC at the Ladhowal police station.

Initially, the police were treating it as a case of natural death and had lodged a report under Section 174 of the CrPC on June 20 on the statement of Pinky. But the finding of the post-mortem report that the girl had died due to strangulation turned the natural death into a cold-blooded murder and accordingly both Pinky and her husband Narinder Pal were booked under Sections 302, 120-B, 182 and 34 of the IPC at the Ladhowal police station.

Giving details, police officials said the deceased girl, Bharti, was born from the first marriage of Pinky and after second marriage of Pinky, her husband Narinder Pal used to treat the girl a burden on him and this factor had led to domestic quarrels many a times.

The accused couple had revealed during preliminary interrogation that as both of them wanted to get rid of the girl and the money they could get from insurance policy of Bharti to tide over their financial difficulties being another allurement, they conspired and killed the girl in her sleep by strangling her with a ‘dupatta’ and in the morning spread the word that their daughter had died.

The police said the duo was produced in a court today and police custody was obtained for three days to carry out further interrogation.

Man booked for sexually abusing minor daughter

In a case of child abuse, the police have booked Tejinder Kumar, a resident of New Kuldeep Nagar, under Sections 376 of the IPC and Section 6 of the POCSO Act for alleged sexual assault on his infant daughter.

The action came on the complaint lodged by the estranged wife of the suspect, Jaswinder Kaur, who got married to him in December 2018. In her complaint, she said her married life was disturbed due to persistent dispute with her in-laws following which she returned to her parents’ house at Jalalabad after four months of the marriage.

With the intervention of both families and relatives, Jaswinder Kaur returned to her house on June 13, 2021.

She said: “On June 15, my infant daughter (around 21 months old) got unwell and started vomiting. I noticed swelling on her private parts. On June 16, as my daughter started crying in the wee hours, I found my husband touching the private part of the child.”She said she left the house and went to her aunt’s house on Tajpur Road where the girl was medically examined and a complaint was filed with the police.