Mouth and nose pressed till she stopped breathing:One-and-a-half-year-old girl killed in Singrauli; woman suspected husband’s affair with sister-in-law

The child’s mouth and nose were pressed until she died. The body was kept hidden inside the house under a quilt for about 12 hours. Late at night, the body was wrapped in a shawl and thrown into a wheat field about 500 meters away from the house, so that an outsider would be suspected. This is the confession before the police of the woman accused of murdering the one-and-a-half-year-old child, who is the child’s paternal aunt (tai) by relation. It should be noted that the child’s body was found on February 23 in Nevra village of Singrauli district. During interrogation by the Garhwa police station, the accused stated that she committed the crime, suspecting an illicit relationship between her husband and her sister-in-law (husband’s younger brother’s wife). She believed that this child also belonged to her husband. On Sunday, the accused woman, Rani Panika (28) was arrested by the police. She was produced in court on Monday. From there, she was sent to jail. To get to the bottom of the matter, Dainik Bhaskar spoke to SP Manish Khatri. He narrated the entire incident sequentially. Short postmortem report, cardio-respiratory arrest According to the SP, on February 22, Shankar Lal Panika, a resident of Newari village, filed a missing person report at the Bagdara police outpost. He stated that his 18-month-old granddaughter, Priyanshu, had been missing since around 9 AM. The next day, February 23, the child’s body was found in a wheat field about 500 meters from her home. Her postmortem was conducted at the Chitrangi Community Health Center. The short postmortem report stated cardio-respiratory arrest as the cause of death. After this, the family buried the body. Re-postmortem revealed, death due to suffocation The family members were not satisfied with the police investigation. The question was how such a small child could have a heart attack. On February 24, an application was submitted to SDOP Rahul Saiyyam for re-investigation. The police, with permission from SDM Saurabh Mishra, exhumed the buried body from the grave. It was then sent to Rewa Medical College. Here, a second post-mortem was conducted. The investigation revealed that the child died due to suffocation. The child’s nose or mouth was pressed, due to which she could not breathe. There were no injury marks on the body. Following this, the police registered a murder case and started an investigation. Dispute with sister-in-law over filling water two days ago The investigation revealed that two days before the incident, there was a dispute between the sisters-in-law over filling water. Actually, the water motor at the accused Rani’s house had broken down, so she went to her sister-in-law’s place to fill water. Here, the child’s mother turned off the motor. She said that their motor was broken. The police spoke to the people nearby. It was found that she was giving water to the rest of the villagers. She had also given water a while ago, but when her sister-in-law arrived, she turned off the motor. Interrogation of people revealed that there was a relationship between Rani’s husband Santosh and the child’s mother, i.e., her sister-in-law. Suspicion on husband-sister-in-law, then why kill the child? Investigating officer Vidya Varidh Tiwari stated that the investigation revealed that there were frequent disputes between the accused woman, Rani Panika and the child’s mother. Based on suspicion, the police started interrogating the woman. Initially, she kept misleading them. Upon strictness, she confessed to the crime. Actually, the accused woman believed that her husband had an illicit relationship with his sister-in-law. She had fought with her husband many times over this, but the matter did not reach the police station. Due to mutual understanding and family pressure, the matter would calm down. This suspicion and jealousy created a feeling of revenge in her mind. Since she believed that this child was also her husband’s offspring, she planned to take the child’s life to get revenge. Husband was made to take an oath in the temple According to the police, a year ago, there was a dispute between the accused woman and her husband regarding this. At that time, villagers and family members had gathered in the temple. There, the accused’s husband was made to swear that he would not go to another woman. Despite this, the suspicion did not go away. The accused woman has three children, including one boy and two girls. The victim woman has two daughters, of whom Priyanshu was the younger one. Both their husbands work as laborers. Both their houses are a short distance apart in the village.