Accused Anusha Pal

BHOPAL: In a heart-rending incident, a two-year-old baby girl was murdered in cold blood by a 40-year-old woman over a minor tiff with the toddler’s mother on Wednesday morning, sending shockwaves across the state capital.

The accused woman took the baby to a desolated spot in Shahpura locality and smothered her face and tried to strangle her. When she found that the baby was still alive, she drowned her face in a pit beside the road filled with rainwater and instantly killed her. Then she disposed the body in the nearby bushes and covered it with a plastic and returned home.

When the toddler’s mother returned home after dropping her 5-year-old son to school and found her daughter missing, she frantically searched for her and lodged a missing child complaint at Habibganj police station.

Cops searched each and every home in the multi-storied building where the minor resided but to no avail. It was only in the evening that a vigilant woman, who resides in the same building, tipped-off the cops and stated that while she was returning from Shahpura, she spotted the accused on the way. She said the accused was behaving in a suspicious manner.

Acting on her lead, police interrogated the accused woman, identified as Anusha Pal and the entire murder plot was revealed. She confessed that after abducting the toddler in a planned manner by offering her biscuits and killed her in cold blood. Cops recovered the baby’s body on Thursday morning.

Police said Anusha resides with her 10-year-old son. The deceased girl’s mother and other neighbours suspected her character since men used to frequent her house. The toddler’s mother is her immediate neighbour and resides on the same floor. She used to object to the fact that unidentified men visited the accused’s house. Anusha was so infuriated by the objection that she decided to take revenge and killed her daughter.

CSP Habibganj Bhupinder Singh said that the deceased toddler Harshita alias Takku, daughter of Lakhan Malviya, resided at Meera Nagar. Lakhan works as a contractor, while his wife Mohini manages the house.

CSP Singh said that Takku was a very friendly child and frequently visited her neighbours during the day. She was pally with a 10-year-old girl who resides on the first floor and often spent hours there.

Police said Mohini was busy in her household chores in the morning, while her husband had gone out to work. Around noon, she went out to drop her son to school and Takku was not at home at that time. She thought that she was busy playing with the 10-year-old neighbour.

When Mohini returned home, she found her daughter missing and approached Habibganj police station around 1.30pm. She suspected that unidentified accused abducted the minor, while she was playing outside the house. Acting on her information, cops registered an abduction case and started their investigation.

SHO Habibganj Satya Prakash Saxena said that cops searched each and every house in the apartment but there was no trace of the toddler. Police then started to interrogate the neighbours by gaining their confidence and also counselled them.

SHO Saxena said that in the evening, police got a major clue when a neighbour, identified as Sandhya Verma, told them that around 1.30pm when she was returning home, she spotted Anusha near a restaurant. Sandhya told police that she stopped to talk to Anusha, but she behaved in a strange manner. She also had tears in eyes and was restless.

SHO Saxena said cops took Anusha to Habibganj police station and started interrogating her. Initially she tried to mislead. She told police that she had spotted unidentified men abducting the minor in a bag. When police started asking for their description and time, she started making contradictory statements. She was interrogated till 3am.

SHO Saxena said that the whole staff of Habibganj police station including probationer DSP Anita Sharma skipped their meals to interrogate Anusha. He said that around 6am after taking an hour’s sleep, she finally confessed to the murder.

Anusha told police that she separated from her husband around 10 years back and came to reside in the building with her 10-year-old son three years back. She said that some men used to visit her house and Takku’s mother Mohini resides on her floor and she objected to the fact that strangers visited her house. This irked her and she decided to take revenge.

SHO Saxena said Anusha abducted the toddler around noon when she was playing outside by offering her a biscuit. Mohini was working in the kitchen then. She then took her to a desolated spot near a restaurant in Shahpura and tried to strangle Takku after smothering her face. When she found that the toddler was still alive, she drowned her face in a rainwater filled pit and killed her. She then disposed the body in the bushes and concealed it with plastic.

SHO Saxena said that had Sandhya not given the clue, cops would have found it difficult to crack the case. The spot where the body was concealed was such that the body would have decomposed. Police will felicitate her for the alertness.

This is the second case in the city where a neighbour woman killed a child. Earlier in July, a four-year-old boy named Varun Meena, was abducted by a woman at Bairagarh Chichli village in Kolar and two days later police found his charred body from an abandoned house merely 10 metres away from his house in the village.

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