BUXAR: Police on Saturday night arrested a woman on charges of strangling her eight-year-old stepdaughter, setting her on fire and then stuffing the charred remains into a gunny bag in Naya Bhojpur village under the jurisdiction of the same police station in Buxar district. The police identified the body as that of Anchal Kumari.
The body, which was stuffed into a gunny bag, was concealed in a wooden box kept under a bed in her house. Buxar SP Shubham Arya, who visited the house on Sunday, said, "The victim's uncle had lodged a missing complaint on Saturday. Police immediately launched a search operation to trace the girl. Based on the woman's confessional statement and evidence collected from the spot, police arrested her. The body has been sent for scientific examination.
The deceased's elder sister, Riya, said, "My stepmother used to beat Aanchal a lot when she made a mistake. On the day of the incident, Aanchal had spilled water in the house."
The victim's father, Pappu Gond, works in Ghaziabad. His first wife died four years ago during the Covid pandemic. Pappu married Seema Devi for the second time in Nov 2024. The accused mother told the police that when Anchal came back from anganwadi at 1pm, she first strangled her to death, then tried to burn her. However, when the body did not burn, she placed it in a gunny bag and hid it in the wooden box kept under the bed, waiting for the night to dispose of the body.