‘Not able to feed them’, parents poison 3 girls at Jalandhar village

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 2

Three minor girls aged four, seven and nine years were poisoned to death by their parents in Kahanpur village near here on Sunday.

The incident became known this morning as the bodies of Amrita Kumari (9), Sakshi (7) and Kanchan (4), daughters of migrant labourer Sushil Mandal, were recovered from a trunk at their place. Since froth had come out of their mouths, the police suspected foul play.

SSP Jalandhar Rural Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar said, “The parents did not inform us about their missing children till late last evening. We got a call on 112, our helpline number, from their landlord Surinder Singh about the missing children. Sub-Inspector from Maqsudan police station reached the spot around 11 pm and started a search.

“As the search teams went again early this morning, the SI informed us that the parents were not making any efforts and did not seem to be in any pain. Rather, the father of the girls was in a drunken condition. At this, our teams became even more suspicious and we traced their bodies dumped in a storage box at their place.”

DSP Balvir Singh added, “Later, the mother of the girls herself confessed that they had killed their daughters due to poverty as they were not able to feed their children properly. She said that they had added pesticide in their milk last morning. The parents have two more toddlers — a son and a daughter — whom they had taken to work at a construction site after committing the crime.”

Didn’t inform cops

The parents did not inform us about their missing children till late last evening. We got a call on our helpline, from their landlord Surinder Singh about the missing children. The parents didn’t make any effort to find them and seemed indifferent. — Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar, SSP