New Delhi, June 16: Sharda, 50, of Block G, Jehangirpuri (northwest Delhi) set herself ablaze and jumped off the balcony of her first-floor house after allegedly strangling her 15-year-old daughter Chelu to death with a dupatta around 9 a.m. on Monday.
Sharda, who was allegedly depressed, is fighting for survival at TB Hospital, Kingsway Camp, after sustaining 70% burns.
“Yesterday [Sunday] evening, she was ranting about committing suicide and killing her daughter, a neighbour said, adding, “But I didn’t think she would do it.”
Sharda was staying with two sons and Chelu. Neighbours said her ICICI employee husband rarely came home. One of the sons is recuperating in hospital after his kidney was punctured in a road accident. Sharda, Chelu and the other son, Mani, were sleeping in the same room. When Mani, a daily wage worker, went to drink water in the morning, he heard a scream and found his mother engulfed in flames and about to jump off the balcony.
Later, he found Chelus body lying near the bed, the dupatta around her neck.
“Evidence points that Sharda killed her daughter before jumping off the building,” a senior police officer told
–Agencies