delhi

Updated: Mar 11, 2015 14:48 IST

A 27-year-old woman killed her three daughters and attempted to commit suicide in south Delhi's Ambedkar Nagar on Monday night. Police said the woman had tried to hang herself from a tree in a jungle located behind Batra Hospital.

A senior police officer said the three daughters of the woman were found lying unconscious on the ground next to the tree, where she tried to hang herself using her dupatta.

Initial investigations into the crime has revealed that the woman was depressed because of the frequent taunts and insults from her family members and neighbours for not having given birth to a male child.

The woman has been identified as Radha Devi who lives in Sangam Vihar locality of south Delhi with her husband Raju Singh. The minor girls were identified as Sulena, 8-months-old, Gealini, 3-years-old and Punita, 8-years-old. Though, the police were waiting for the autopsy reports of the dead children, a preliminary medical report suggested that the kids might have been strangulated to death by their mother.

Mandeep Singh Randhawa, deputy commissioner of police, said that the police control room received a call at 8.30pm on Monday regarding the death of a woman and her three children.

A police team immediately rushed to the spot from where the PCR call was made. Eyewitnesses told the police that the woman was found hanging from a tree by some passersby who immediately brought her down and thereby helped in saving her life. Her daughters, however, were found lying unconscious.



"The victims were rushed to ESI Hospital where doctors pronounced the minor girls dead on admission. Since the woman's condition was also serious, the doctors immediately shifted her to Safdarjung Hospital where she is undergoing treatment," said Randhawa. The woman's condition later was stated to be out of danger.



A case of murder and attempt to suicide was registered at the Ambedkar Nagar police station and investigations taken up. Police questioned Radha's family members and learnt that she had called her husband on his mobile phone before and informed him about her intentions before the incident.



"We are probing the case to ascertain what actually triggered the woman to kill her daughters and attempt to kill herself. We have learnt that she was undergoing treatment for anxiety and depression,” a senior police officer said.