A woman in Karnataka’s Bidar has been arrested for killing her six-year-old stepdaughter by pushing her from the terrace of a three-storey building near their residence on August 27, the police said on Monday.
According to the police, the incident came to light on September 13, more than two weeks after the crime, when one of the neighbours came across the CCTV footage from the cameras installed near the building.
The accused, identified as Radha Siddhanth, who is in her 20s, made the family believe that the girl accidentally fell from the building and died, the police said.
The deceased has been identified as Sanvi, the police said.
Sanvi’s father, Siddhanth, married Radha in 2023 after his wife and Sanvi’s mother died in 2019 due to illness. Radha gave birth to twins, and all were living together.
According to the police, Radha considered Sanvi a ‘burden’ and decided to kill her. “During police interrogation, Radha confessed to the horrific crime, stating she killed her step-daughter because she wanted the family property to be divided exclusively among her biological children,” a police officer said.
On August 27, she took Sanvi to the terrace of the building, made her sit on a chair, and allegedly pushed her down and rushed home, the police said. Hearing the noise, the neighbours and family members rushed and found Sanvi lying in a pool of blood. They immediately shifted her to a private hospital.
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Sanvi died the next day, and Siddhanth, who trusted the version of Radha, informed the Gandhi Ganj police station that the death was accidental. However, one of the neighbours, who came across the CCTV footage from the cameras installed near the building, noticed Radha suspiciously walking and keenly observing the area from the terrace with Sanvi, minutes before deliberately allegedly pushing the child off the building.
The police arrested Radha based on a complaint from Sanvi’s grandmother.