Six-year-old girl, mother found dead

A 32-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter were found dead under mysterious circumstances at their second floor house in Bindapur area of southwest Delhi, police said. HT reports.

A 32-year-old woman and her six-year-old daughter were found dead under mysterious circumstances at their second floor house in Bindapur area of southwest Delhi, police said.

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The victim identified as Meenu Sharma was found dead with her daughter Yukta whom she had adopted from her brother, police said. When the police reached the spot, the bodies were found lying on the floor with ropes around their necks.

It was Sharma's brother-in-law Mandy who saw the bodies first. He told the police that he went to check on the mother and daughter when they did not come out of their room till 11 am on Thursday.

"He peeped from the window and saw both of them hanging from the ceiling. He broke open the door and brought the bodies down. We cannot say anything at this point of time as the bodies had already been brought down when we reached the spot. It is tough to say whether it was a case of suicide or not," said Sharad Aggarwal, deputy commissioner of police (southwest).

Sharma's family has told the police that they suspected the involvement of the woman's in-laws, and it was a case of murder. Sharma got married in 2004, and the couple had adopted the daughter.

"We have informed Sharma's husband who lives in Mumbai, and are trying to ascertain the cause behind the crime. We found some ligature marks around their necks," said the officer.

Police said they have informed the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) to probe the case, as the marriage was less than seven years old. Police said they also wanted to ascertain whether Sharma killed her daughter first and committed suicide later.

The bodies have been sent to the mortuary at Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital, where an autopsy would be conducted on Friday to ascertain the cause of death.