Mother held for daughter's suspicious death

KOTA: The police arrested a woman on Saturday, alleging that she had tried to conceal her daughter's suicide and dumped the body to protect the family from social stigma. The accused, Manju, was produced in the court and sent to two days of judicial custody. Search is on for an auto-rickshaw driver too who allegedly assisted the woman.
According to the police, 18-year-old Sonika, a resident of Kunhadi, Kota was enraged because her mother did not let her attend a wedding and she committed suicide by hanging herself from ceiling on July 13, 2008.Her body was discovered by her mother, Manju who then planned to dispose off the body.
"At prima facie it seems that Manju was perplexed because of her daughter's suicide and instead of informing the police she decided to dispose off the body," said Kunhadi SHO, Vradhi Chand Gujjar.
He added that Manju wrapped up the body in a bed sheet and took it to Kota Barrage in an auto-rickshaw, thus the auto driver's role in helping Manju dispose off the body is not being ruled out. Manju even threatened her younger daughter who was present in the house and even misled her husband about their daughter's disappearance.
Manju stated that Sonika had gone for a wedding and did not return. After two days of searching for Sonika, the family had registered a formal complaint with the police.
Meanwhile, Sonika's body was discovered by the police and identified by another man, Purshottam Das of Dada Bari, as his daughter. It is reported that Das' daughter too had been missing and he mistook the body to be his daughter's.
After the post-mortem, the body was handed over to Das who performed the last rites. Since the body had a head injury, it was being considered a murder case.
However, on July 17, 2008 when Das' daughter was discovered alive in Bhilwara, fresh investigations were initiated and based on the photographs taken by the police the body was established as Sonika's. The similarity between the bed sheet that was used to wrap the body and those in Manju's house made the police suspicious about Manju's statement and she was thus arrested.