Mumbai: Frustrated of looking after her, woman kills mentally ill teen daughter, say Police

The incident took place around 2.30 pm on Wednesday in their one-room kitchen house on the second floor of a building in Parsiwada on Sahar Road. The woman, Shradha Suresh, 41, lived there with her husband and three children. The victim, Vaishnavi, was her eldest daughter. She also has two other daughters, aged 16 and two.

The police control room received information from a neighbour that a resident of the building has died by suicide. A team from Andheri police station rushed to the spot and saw Vaishn-avi lying unconscious and her parents sitting next to her. She was rushed to Cooper Hospital, where she was declared dead.

Vaishnavi’s mother Shradha told the police that her daughter was mentally ill and died by suicide by hanging herself with a belt. The police suspected something amiss in the version given by Shradha and inquired with the doctor who was conducting the post-mortem. The doctor said it was unlikely that a mentally ill person could take such a step. The Andheri police then questioned Shradha at length. During the interrogation, she broke down and confessed that she had strangled her daughter with the belt when she was alone at home, said police. During the incident, her husband was at work and the 16-year-old daughter was in college.

When asked about the motive behind the murder, a police official said, “Her mother told us that she was extremely frustrated with her daughter, who has been mentally ill since birth. The daughter was able to walk but always needed someone to be there to look after her. They could not leave her alone at home.”

“The mother said the entire family used to get depressed due to her problems. Her mother used to make some money by selling breakfast items but she ran out of business during the pandemic-induced lockdown. Her husband, who worked in a private company, lost his job during the lockdown,” said the official.