Desperate for a son, woman murders her 3 daughters

Radha Devi, who brutally murdered her three daughters in south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar on Monday night and later attempted suicide, was desperate for a son and would often curse her children.

Radha Devi, who brutally murdered her three daughters in south Delhi’s Sangam Vihar on Monday night and later attempted suicide, was desperate for a son and would often curse her children.

Raju-Singh-husband-of-Radha-Devi-who-murdered-three-of-her-daughters-on-Tuesday-HT-Photos-Sonu-Mehta

daughters and been undergoing treatment for depression for the past two years.

Her husband Raju, who works at a tailoring unit in Okhla Phase II, had told doctors that she used to stay awake all night.

The last few weeks had been extremely difficult for the family with Radha refusing to interact with her husband and daughters. “Radha would stand alone in the corner of the house refusing to eat, talk or sleep. At night, she would take long strolls outside the house while talking to herself,” Raju told HT.

In the densely populated crowded neighbourhood of Sangam Vihar, local residents knew that Radha was depressed as she did not have a son. Some even claimed to have consoled her but no one expected the woman to kill three of her own daughters.

Neighbours remember Radha ‘cursing and beating’ her four daughters outside their rented one-room house. Some said that she had even offered to give her daughters up for adoption.

Her landlady Bhagya Laxmi said, “She would often talk about how she desperately wanted a son. She had also asked me to adopt her daughters.”

Just last week, Radha had gone missing and was later found at a park in the area.

“We had advised her to go to her father’s house in Etawah. She was to leave this weekend. Little did we expect she would do this,” Raju said.

On Monday afternoon, the family had gone for her routine check-up and while they were returning, she went missing with her three daughters.

The fourth child, her eldest daughter Varsha who survived, was with her father while they were returning home.

“I had hired an auto for her and our daughters. I got stuck at a traffic signal while she went ahead. When I reached home, they were not there. In the evening, she called me and said that she had killed them and was ending her life. We managed to rescue her but not our daughters,” said Raju.