Woman killed daughter, parents to hide her 'free life': police

In a shocker in the triple murder case in Kerala's Kannur district,the 28-year-old woman accused has confessed that she fed rat poison laced food to her daughter and parents to hide her "free life."

According to police, Soumya had confessed that she did not want her parents and daughter to see the life she was leading and so committed the crime.""

Soumya first poisoned her daughter Aishwarya, who died on January 21 this year after being hospitalised with symptoms of vomiting, police said." """"

Soumya's mother Kamala (65) was the second victim.

She died in March followed by V V Kunhikannan (76), Soumya's father in April, both after being hospitalised following a severe bout of vomiting, he said.

 

Four days after her father's death, the accused also got herself admitted to a hospital, feigning symptoms of vomiting."

However, some of her relatives raised suspicions over the three deaths in a 50-day period and lodged a police complaint following which investigations began, thus unravelling the mystery over the deaths."

After sustained questioning for about 11 hours, Soumya on Tuesday night broke down and admitted to poisoning them, police said."""

Police, however, maintained that the death of her one-year-old daughter in 2012 was due to natural causes.

Effort is now on to trace her estranged husband.

Police today questioned several persons known to her to find out if she had taken anyone's help in committing the "pre-planned" murders.

Soumya's sister, Sandhya, told a Malayalam television channel that when her father fell ill doctors of a hospital in Thalassery had wanted him to be shifted to Kozhikode medical college for better treatment, but Soumya had refused.

Sandhya also said her sister used to send videos of her parents and daughter in the hospital over mobile and would regularly update her about their health condition, thus leaving no room for any suspicion."

When some relatives wanted a post-mortemt to be conducted on their mother's body, Soumya refused, saying she did not want the body to be cut open, the sister said.

The accused was booed when she was brought by police for taking evidence yesterday.