Woman kills 4 daughters, attempts suicide

Police in Nuh (about 40km from Gurugram) said they received a call from the woman’s husband on Friday morning, informing them about the murders of his daughters,who were between six months and eight years old.

A 35-year-old woman, apparently suffering from depression for over six months because of fights with her husband because the couple did not have any male children, allegedly slit the throats of her four daughters with a kitchen knife on Thursday night, and later attempted suicide, the police said.

The woman was found unconscious in the house, police said. She is in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital in Nalhar, where a police team has been deployed to record her statement once she is in the condition to give one. (Getty Images/iStockphoto (Representative Image))

Police in Nuh (about 40km from Gurugram) said they received a call from the woman’s husband on Friday morning, informing them about the murders of his daughters,who were between six months and eight years old.

The woman was found unconscious in the house, police said. She is in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital in Nalhar, where a police team has been deployed to record her statement once she is in the condition to give one. A case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against the woman at the Punhana police station.

HT is not naming the accused or giving exact locations because the crime could be linked to mental illness.

Vivek Choudhary, deputy superintendent of police (Punhana), said that the husband was away on Thursday night on a condolence visit because a family in the vicinity had lost three members in a road accident. “He returned at around 3am on Friday, and knocked the door. When his wife did not open it for a while, he tried to prise open a window. He saw two of his daughters lying in a pool of blood on a bed in one of the rooms,” he said.

The neighbours found that was no entry from outside, and the main gate and the room was locked from inside, so they did not suspect role of any outsider,” the DSP said.

The husband told the police on Friday that his wife was depressed because they did not have a male child. The two were married since 2012. Police said the woman had another daughter from and earlier marriage -- the girl lives with her father and the woman wanted to bring her to live with her family, but the husband did not allow it.

Some neighbours, however, told the police that the couple often fought, and the husband blamed his wife for not delivering a son. “She was under tremendous pressure to produce a son,” a neighbour told HT on condition of anonymity.

The husband denied allegations that he wanted a male child, and said that he was attached to all his daughters and loved them dearly

DSP Choudhary said the bodies of girls were handed over to the father after the post-mortem examination. The doctors confirmed that their throats were slit, and they died due to excessive bleeding.

“We are conducting investigation and a team of forensic experts was called to the spot. Fingerprints and other samples were collected by them. We haven’t given a clean shot to the husband yet, and he is under the scanner,” Choudhary said.