NEW DELHI: A six-year-old girl was murdered by her mother at Ghazipur as she had seen her with her lover. The woman then cooked up a story of some occultist killing her to mislead police.
Police said on Wednesday night, a family approached them and said their six-year-old girl, Kajal, was missing. Police formed a team to look for her and circulated her photograph on WhatsApp. Police also conducted a door-to-door search but all their efforts came to nought. Then the girl’s body was found on the terrace of a building adjacent to her house.

The little girl’s throat had been slit. Her mother, Munni Devi (30), appeared distraught by this. She told the police that she was at home with her husband and two other children when Kajal went out to play. This was her normal routine, Devi said. But when Kajal didn’t return till late, they went out looking for her.

Devi said when she asked Kajal’s friends if they had seen her, they told her that they had seen her go towards a "ghost" but never returned to play with them.

"When I saw my daughter’s body this morning, I became sure that someone had performed black magic on her, and her throat was slit in a manner that only an occultist could do for a sacrificial ritual," a sourced quoted Devi.

This was almost believable. But when the police questioned her further, she couldn’t provide satisfactory answers. That’s when the needle of suspicion pointed towards her.

By Thursday morning, Devi had confessed to her crime. "The case was solved within a few hours and the mother along with a man were arrested," said DCP (east) Omvir Singh.

Devi told the police what had actually happened.

Kajal had been playing on the terrace when she saw Devi sit with an unknown man, hand in hand. This was Sudhir (22) who was her lover.

On seeing them together, Kajal called out to her father and tried to run down. Devi ran after her and managed to gag her before she could blurt out things. She dragged her daughter back to the terrace. She told Kajal not to tell anyone about them but she wouldn’t budge.

For a moment, Devi asked Sudhir what could be done to keep Kajal from telling her father about their relationship. Then they both decided that killing her was the only way to silence her forever. The two lovers then dragged the girl to the terrace of a nearby building and slit her throat with a knife. They then dragged the body back and dumped it on the terrace of another adjacent building.

Sudhir fled and Devi returned to her flat, pretending to look for her daughter.