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They saw their parents die

Four-year-old Sanchita Maurya did not know that a fight between her parents would take such a turn. On Wednesday, she told the police that she saw her mother hit her father with an iron pestle and then hang herself from the ceiling fan, reports Peeyush Khandelwal.

Updated on: Jun 17, 2009, 23:14:46 IST
Hindustan Times | By , Ghaziabad
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Four-year-old Sanchita Maurya did not know that a fight between her parents would take such a turn.

HT Image
HT Image

On Wednesday, she told the police that she saw her mother hit her father with an iron pestle and then hang herself from the ceiling fan.

Vimla Maurya (35), a mother of three children, allegedly murdered her husband Ramprakash Maurya (45) and then hanging herself from a ceiling fan at their residence in Shalimar Garden Ext-I, Ghaziabad, on Tuesday night.

Their two daughters– Sanchita (4) and Yashika (3) – witnessed the incident. The two girls stayed with the bodies for over 11 hours before the colony’s cleaner discovered them.

Ramprakash was an accounts manager with a Delhi-based company.

His colleague, who did not want to be named, said the family had purchased the Ghaziabad house five months ago. They moved back to their Delhi residence because of a dispute between the couple.

“They returned to the flat two days ago. Vimla was undergoing psychiatric treatment,” said the colleague.

Sanchita helped the police piece together the incident.

“Ma wanted to go out with papa yesterday evening after he returned from office… He did not go out and mother was furious over this. They fought and at night, my mother hit my father’s head several times and covered our faces with a cloth. Then she took us to the other room and tried to make us sleep,” Sanchita said.

The girls said she went through a photo album before hanging herself from the fan. “I tried to wake her up but she didn’t,” said Sanchita.

The couple’s son Aryan was at their grandmother’s house.

The police said Maurya’s head was badly battered with the pestle and the woman was found hanging from the ceiling-fan with a cloth.

“We came to know when the cleaner knocked this morning. The children opened the door,” said a neighbour.

“We have come to know that the woman was undergoing psychiatric treatment in Delhi. An FIR has been lodged and the bodies have been handed over to the family,” station officer Yogesh Pathak said.

  • Peeyush Khandelwal
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    Peeyush Khandelwal

    Peeyush Khandelwal writes on a range of issues in western Uttar Pradesh – from crime, to development authorities and from infrastructure to transport. Based in Ghaziabad, he has been a journalist for almost a decade.Read More

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