Thane: A 27-year-old woman was arrested on Sunday for reportedly poisoning her three young daughters to death in Maharashtra's Thane district because of distress related to domestic problems, according to police.
The individual known as Sandhya Sandeep Bere, a housewife living in the Talepada region of Asnoli village in the Shahapur area, is alleged to have contaminated varan bhat (a traditional dish of rice and lentils) with pesticide and presented it to her daughters aged 5, 8, and 10 on July 20, according to a senior police official speaking to the news agency PTI.
Shortly after eating the meal, the girls started to vomit and felt lightheaded. They were hurried to a nearby hospital. As their health declined, two of them were moved to a hospital in Mumbai, where they passed away on July 24 and July 25. The official stated that the third child was transported to a Nashik hospital, where she passed away on July 24.
Initially, an accidental death case was recorded at the Khinavli police station. The postmortem reports obtained on Saturday night indicated that poison was found in the bodies of the children. Based on this vital forensic evidence, police filed a murder case against Sandhya and took her into custody around 2 am on Sunday.
The police reported that the woman was dealing with significant domestic problems, including claims of her husband's alcohol abuse. She had parted ways with him and was having difficulty raising her daughters alone, which might have led her to commit the offense.
Her in-laws had raised concerns regarding her role in the deaths, leading police to initially hold her for questioning. Her arrest came after the autopsy reports were confirmed. Police stated that additional inquiries are in progress.
