Rajkot: The death of a two-and-a-half-year-old girl in Shaheed Udham Singh Township on Oct 12 turned out to be murder, allegedly committed by her mother, who said she couldn’t afford to raise the girl and wanted to live on her own.On Oct 12, Snehal Sakariya died after falling from the 5th floor. Police suspected it wasn’t an accidental fall given that Snehal was shorter than the 4-foot parapet wall.After two days of questioning by investigators, her mother, Poonam, allegedly confessed to the crime. She was arrested after the child’s father, Sanjay, lodged a complaint at B Division police station.Poonam said financial distress and her desire to remarry were motivating factors. “She said she could not afford the expenses of raising the toddler, was struggling to pay for things like toys, and wanted to live independently and start married life afresh. She felt having a child would compel her to marry someone who already had children,” investigators said.City crime branch senior inspector Ajitsinh Chavda said initial statements from the family suggested that Snehal had left their fifth-floor flat around 7pm on Monday to play with a friend on the sixth floor. A few minutes later, her family was told that she had fallen down. Poonam feigned innocence, even pretending to look for Snehal on the 6th floor and trying to shift suspicion to her estranged husband by claiming he had threatened the child.Police found the parapet wall was four feet high, while Snehal was only three feet tall. Furthermore, her body was discovered six feet away from the base of the wall, indicating she had been lifted and hurled.Staged incidents and marital discordPolice also dismantled an alleged cover-up attempt. Snehal’s maternal grandfather, Jagdish Parsoda, earlier reported that an unknown person had been tossing clothes, quilts, footwear, and flowerpots off the fifth floor for about three days before the killing, creating the theory that Snehal may have been killed by a prowler. Crime branch investigators found that Poonam had staged these incidents to establish a pattern of suspicious activity and deflect scrutiny before killing the child.Husband doubted child’s paternityPoonam and Sanjay married about four years ago, but marital discord emerged early on. The couple were under financial stress during Poonam’s pregnancy, during which Sanjay reportedly sold her ring to cover medical costs.After her birth, Sanjay questioned the paternity of the child based on her appearance. The hostility led Poonam to leave Sanjay and live with Snehal at her parents’ home for about the past 18 months, crime branch inspector M L Damor said.
