2-year-old’s body found, parents allege murder

NOIDA: The body of a two-year-old girl was found with scratch marks on the face and neck in a field adjoining a temple 500 metres from her home, almost 14 hours after she was reported missing by her parents in a village in Noida Extension.
The father of the girl has lodged a police complaint, accusing his sister-in-law and another relative of murdering his daughter over a property dispute. The girl’s father said his relatives had threatened him with dire consequences a few months ago following a quarrel over the ownership of a house in their native village in Sambhal. The body of Kusum was first seen around 10am on Wednesday by a group of children playing football in a corner of a field in Old Haibatpur village. When the ball strayed to the corner of the field surrounded by bushes and shrubs, one of the children saw the body and raised an alarm.

Kusum’s mother Kranti had five children from her former husband, with whom she had separated five years ago. The woman then married Satpal, and the couple had two children, which included Kusum. It was a month ago that Kranti and Satpal had shifted to a rented accommodation in Old Haibatput village along with the seven children. The husband-wife duo worked as labourers.

Kusum had accompanied her mother to a neighbour’s house around 8pm on Tuesday. Kranti was busy talking to the neighbour, Sarifan, when the little girl walked outside. “It was a matter of minutes. She was nowhere to be found. We started a search for her in the village, but to no avail,” the neighbour said.

When a frantic search yielded little result, Kusum’s parents made announcements from loudspeakers in the village temple and mosque. But Kusum was nowhere to be seen.

Her body was found the next morning. “She was first seen by a group of village boys playing football on the ground behind the Shani temple. The boys stopped their game and informed the village elders. We rushed to the spot, but the child was dead by then,” said Lokesh Chauhan, a neighbour. One of the villagers dialed 100, and a police team reached the spot for investigation.

Satpal said his daughter had injury marks on the face and neck. “I think someone had picked her up from the locality, took her to an isolated place and throttled her to death. The place where she was found is 500 metres from home,” he said. The girl’s father on Wednesday lodged a complaint at Bisrakh police station, naming his sister-in-law Manju and another relative, Mahesh. Satpal accused both of murdering his daughter over the property in Sambhal.

“There is a dispute over our ancestral house in Sambhal. They had threatened us with dire consequences three months ago and a complaint was filed against them. I suspect they committed the murder,” Satpal said. The family has not alleged any sexual assault in the complaint.

Both Manju and Mahesh, who have been named in the complaint, could not be reached for a comment. Suniti, the SP (rural) of Gautam Budh Nagar, said a case of murder had been registered under Section 302 of the IPC. “The body has been sent for postmortem and the reports are awaited. We have launched an investigation and formed a team to arrest the accused,” she said.