Balangir: In a shocking incident, a woman allegedly killed her Class II step-daughter for property at Bharuamunda village under Belpada panchayat in Bolangir district Friday.
In bid to erase evidence, she dumped the girl’s body in a water tank of their house. The matter came to the fore after the girl’s body was spotted floating in the tank.
However, the woman tried to mislead the girl’s mother, stating that she had gone to play there and might have fallen accidentally in it. The deceased has been identified as Rashmita Meher, daughter of Pradip Meher and a Class II student of Saraswati Vidya Mandir.
Acting on the complaint of Pradip, Patnagarh police registered a case and launched a probe. During the probe, police suspected the behaviour of the accused and took her for interrogation following which she confessed to her crime.
The woman committed the heinous crime following a dispute with her husband over property, she confessed.
“The woman has confessed to killing the girl for property. She has been forwarded to court and remanded in judicial custody,” police said.
According to sources, the girl’s father had married the woman after the death of his first wife. However, the woman reportedly did not like the girl and often tortured her in the absence of her father.
She reportedly wanted the property to be in her name while Pradip wanted to save it for his daughter. This created a rift between the couple and the woman hatched a plan to eliminate the girl.
As per the plan, she strangled the girl while Pradip had gone out for work and later dumped the body in the water tank. Pradip returned home and searched for the girl, but she was not seen anywhere.
The woman acted as if she did not know anything and said that the girl had gone to play with her friends and had not returned home. Later, the girl’s body was found in the water tank of her house.
“When I returned home from work, my daughter was missing. We began a frantic search and found her dead body in the water tank. My wife killed the kid for property,” alleged Meher.
PNN
