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Mom-in-law beaten to death in Delhi for refusing to live in care home
The investigation into the case began after the police received a call from the husband of the accused, Surjit Som, 51, about his mother on the same morning, police said
An 86-year-old woman was allegedly beaten to death with a pressure cooker by her daughter-in-law late last month over wanting to shift the victim to an old-age home, Delhi Police officers said on Tuesday, after arresting the woman.
Sarmishta Som, 48, was booked for murder in the death case of Harshi Som, police said.
“The daughter-in-law had a long-standing frustration of taking care of the elderly woman. She was fed up of cooking for her, serving her meals and helping her with her daily chores,” said Chandan Chaudhary, deputy commissioner of police (south), adding that there was no immediate trigger for the murder.
Harshi was found dead on April 28 with multiple injuries to her face and skull inside her one-bed room apartment at Neb Sarai in south Delhi, police said.
The investigation into the case began after the police received a call from the husband of the accused, Surjit Som, 51, about his mother on the same morning, police said.
The husband and wife used to live in a flat in Swastik Residency, right opposite the apartment of the deceased. According to police, she earlier used to live with them and their 16-year-old daughter, however, the wife wanted her to be shifted to an old age home as she needed a lot of care and attention. While the son, who works with an advertising agency, wanted to live close to his mother, he decided to shift her to the nearby flat to look after her, police said. He had also installed a CCTV camera inside the room to keep watch over his mother, who suffered from arthritis and faced mobility issues.
Probe found that Sharmishta, a homemaker, would often quarrel with her husband to send his mother back to Kolkata, where the family originally belonged to, police said.
“The family belongs to Kolkata. Harshi lived in Kolkata until March 2022 when her son brought her to Delhi to take care of her. Surjit housed his mother in a rented one-bedroom apartment right in front of his flat,” said the DCP. “Surjit told us that his mother suffered from arthritis. Last October, he told us, his mother fell in the washroom of his flat due to the built of the house, due to which he moved her to a nearby flat where the washroom and kitchen were easily accessible to her.”
Surjit used to monitor his mother’s movements through his mobile as he had a live access from the camera, said the officer. However, Surjit told the police that on the day on his mother’s death, the camera was not working due to power failure.
While initially the family members as well as neighbours did not suspect any foul play into the woman’s death, police decided to get an autopsy conducted.
It was then that police started probing the murder angle, as “doctors conducting the autopsy told us that injuries caused to the victim were not possible under normal circumstances”, said the officer.
Later, police also accessed the CCTV footage — which was in the possession of Surjit but was not shared with the police when the investigation began. “The footage showed the accused entering the deceased’s flat at around 10.30am on March 28. She was carrying a pressure cooker and went behind her mother-in-law to the kitchen, which was not captured by the CCTV. Thereafter, sounds of the victim’s screams could be heard in the audio of the footage. Later, the woman was seen on CCTV cleaning the pressure cooker with a cloth,” said the DCP.
The suspicion was emboldened after Sharmishta’s daughter revealed that her mother and grandmother did not share a cordial relationship. “This was also conformed by Surjit,” the DCP said.
On Monday, the final autopsy report arrived, which revealed that the deceased had sustained 14 injuries.
This ultimately led to the police lodging a murder case against Sharmishta at the Neb Sarai police station the same day. According to the DCP, while the actual crime was not caught on camera as it took place in the kitchen, there was enough evidence even in the footage to implicate Sharmishta, who was subsequently arrested the next day.
