Delhi woman who killed her kids booked, police check claim of domestic abuse

At around 9pm Monday, the woman, who the police identified only by her first name Alia, allegedly first threw her three-year-old son onto the road, and then her seven-year-old daughter onto the rooftop of the adjacent two-storey building. She then followed her daughter by jumping off the terrace.

Police on Tuesday registered a case of murder and attempt to suicide against a 34-year-old woman, a day after she allegedly killed her two minor children by throwing them down from the terrace of a four-storey building in east Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar.

The woman threw her son first from the terrace on the road and then her daughter on the roof of the adjacent yellow building on Monday. (HT Photo)

At around 9pm Monday, the woman, who the police identified only by her first name Alia, allegedly first threw her three-year-old son onto the road, and then her seven-year-old daughter onto the rooftop of the adjacent two-storey building. She then followed her daughter by jumping off the terrace.

Police said Alia’s husband Munawwar (identified by his first name) was at his automobile spare parts shop in north Delhi’s Sadar Bazar at the time.

Deputy commissioner of police (east) Jasmeet Singh said that they have requested the Delhi government to constitute a panel of doctors to conduct the autopsies of the children.

Police said they are yet to ascertain why Alia killed her children and tried to kill herself. While she is undergoing treatment at Lok Nayak hospital and is unfit for statement, her husband told the police that she was suffering from depression and was undergoing treatment for the past few months.

“We have not recovered a suicide note,” said DCP Singh. “We have booked the woman under section 302 (murder) and 309 (suicide attempt) of the Indian Penal Code. Her husband told us that his wife was on medication for depression. However, we are yet to get her medical records. The claims of the neighbours regarding the couple’s marital problems and police complaint are also being verified,” said DCP Singh.

Alia’s family lived on the third floor.

Zafar Abbas, a lawyer who lives with his family in the adjacent flat, said he was speaking to his father over the cellphone and his wife was cooking dinner in the kitchen when they heard a commotion outside.

“We looked out from our balcony and heard people screaming that a child had fallen from our building. I checked on my four children and was relieved after seeing them in the house. We then rushed downstairs and found that the child was our neighbour Munawwar’s son,” said Abbas.

Just as Abbas was trying to rush the boy to a nearby hospital, neighbours alerted that a woman and a girl were lying injured on the roof of the adjacent building.

“We rushed over there and found Alia and her daughter. A woman in our neighbourhood told us that she had seen Alia throwing her children before jumping off the building,” said Fiza Fatima, Abbas’s wife.

Munawwar is from Bihar while Alia was born and brought up in Mumbai. The couple were married for around 10 years.