The police on Wednesday arrested a 26-year-old woman for allegedly killing her three-year-old daughter and dumping the body at a construction site in Annapoorneshwari Nagar. According to the police, the accused, Sudha, was angry with her daughter, Vinutha, for always taking her father’s side. She pretended her daughter was missing and joined her husband Eeranna in searching for her.
When Eeranna couldn’t locate her, he filed a missing person complaint on Tuesday with the Jnanabharathi police.
Sanjeev Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), said that the couple along with their daughter lived in a rented house at Mallathalli. While Eeranna worked at a private firm, Sudha was part of the housekeeping staff at a granite shop and worked there from 9 a.m. to noon. She would often take her daughter to her workplace.
On Tuesday, after picking up his wife and daughter from the granite store, Eeranna switched on the television to watch the news. When Sudha objected, Vinutha told her not fight with her father.
Enraged, Sudha allegedly took the girl out late in the evening while Eeranna was at work and murdered her. When Eeranna returned home, the door was locked. He called his wife on her mobile phone. She informed that Vinutha went missing while she was buying snacks for them at the chaat shop.
Worried Eeranna and Sudha, along with a friend, searched for the girl before filing a complaint with the Jnanabharathi police. On Wednesday morning, the Annapoorneshwari Nagar police found the body at the construction site. There were ligature marks on the neck.
When the police questioned the parents, they realised that something was amiss in Sudha’s statement. “She said she was in a chaat shop when her daughter went missing. However, during the course of the investigation, we found that she had not visited the chaat shop. Instead, she was placed near the area of the construction site with her daughter. We have CCTV footage of them,” said a senior police officer.
Sudha claimed that the child would always take her father’s side in any argument and would report on her movements to him. “She claimed that Vinutha often humiliated her and called her names. Enraged by this, she decided to kill her,” Mr. Patil said.
The police are trying to ascertain if there were other reasons for the murder.
