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An illustration by a four-year-old girl, whose mother was found dead in Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi on Monday, has raised suspicion that the woman was assaulted and murdered by her husband, after years of alleged harassment, the police said.
The incident, which took place at Panchavati Shiv Parivar Colony under Kotwali area of Jhansi, came to light when the 27-year-old woman's in-laws told her family that she died by suicide. A drawing and a statement of the woman's daughter, however, suggested that she was killed by her husband, and her body was hanged to make it appear as a suicide.
The woman was identified as Sonali Budholia and her husband, a medical representative, as Sandeep Budholia. Their daughter's name is Darshita.
"Papa assaulted and killed mummy. He then said 'die if you want to'. He hanged her body and hit her head with a stone. Later, he brought down the body and dumped it inside a sack," Darshita, who later lit the pyre, told reporters, as she showed a drawing of the purported assault.
The child also alleged that her father had threatened to kill her mother earlier. "I had told him once that if you touch my mother, I will break your hand. He used to beat her, saying she should die and that I should meet the same fate as her," she said.
Sonali's father Sanjeev Tripathi, a resident of Tikamgarh district in Madhya Pradesh, said she and Sandeep got married in 2019 but have since shared a troubled relationship.
"On the wedding day, I gave them Rs 20 lakh in cash as dowry but days later, Sandeep and his family began making new demands. They wanted a car. I told them it is beyond my means to buy them a car. He and his family then started assaulting my daughter. I even approached the police over this once and we had arrived at a compromise," he said.
The situation, however, worsened after Sonali gave birth to a girl, Sanjeev said. "Sandeep wanted a boy. After the delivery, he and his family left my daughter alone in the hospital. I had to go to the nursing home to complete the payment. I took her home. Sandeep came a month later to receive Sonali and Darshita," he said.
Sanjeev said recently, Sonali was attending her cousin's wedding in Jhansi's Samthar when Sandeep called and asked her to return home.
"This morning, I got a call, saying my daughter's health has deteriorated. After some time, I received another call, saying she hung herself. As soon as I reached there, I learnt that she was dead," he said.
Kotwali City Police officer Ramveer Singh said the body has been sent for an autopsy and the report is awaited.
"We got a call about the woman's death at her husband's house under mysterious circumstances. Her parents have alleged that she was murdered. We are probing the case," Mr Singh said.
(With inputs from Vinod Kumar Gautam)