Murder of 4-year-old: Mother, lover held

Kolkata: A joint investigation team from the homicide section of Kolkata Police's Detective department and Ultadanga police cracked the murder mystery of a four-year-old girl, whose body was recovered from a partly-open manhole near her residence on Shyamlal Street in Shyambazar on Friday night.

The sleuths arrested the mother of the child and her lover in connection with the murder. "We have arrested the mother, Moni Mondal and her lover, who is a minor. The woman wanted to marry the minor, who disapproved of taking responsibility of her child. The duo together plotted the murder and after strangulation, they dumped her in a manhole, a little distance away from the residence of the deceased, leading to a dilapidated three-storey building on Shyamlal Street, adjacent to Deshbandhu Park," an investigating officer said.

The sleuths initially were completely in the dark about the motive and non availability of CCTV footage in the area made it more difficult.

"We started interrogating family members of the child and her neighbours and after thorough grilling learnt about the soured relationship of the woman and her husband as well as her love affair. Once we zeroed in on the probable motive our job became easier," an officer of the detective department said. Sources said the woman had become pregnant, courtesy her illicit relationship. The child had gone missing since August 29 and her body was recovered two days later when stench emanating from a partly open manhole led to her discovery. The girl's mother used to work as a domestic help and lived separately along with her daughter in the Shyambazar slum. The post-mortem revealed that the child was strangulated to death.