Woman bludgeons handicapped mother-in-law to death, burns body

A 29-year-old woman was arrested here on Wednesday for beating her handicapped mother-in-law to death following a quarrel over her child's crying and later trying to conceal her crime by burning her body, police said.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Omvir Singh said that Swarna Kapoor, 62, was murdered late on Tuesday night and her daughter-in-law Kanchan Kapoor, 29, was arrested from their house in Mandawali of east Delhi subsequently.

Police said that Swarna and Kanchan often used to quarrel and on Tuesday night, Kanchan beat her mother-in-law with a wooden stick following a squabble over Kanchan's child crying in the house.

Later in the night, police received a phone call from Swarna's son, Sumit, informing that his mother has been found dead.

On sustained interrogation, Kanchan disclosed that she had hit her repeatedly with a wooden stick.

Police said that there were quarrels between the two women over family issues and Kanchan had thought about killing Swarna in the past also.

On Tuesday night, Kanchan's child started crying aloud at their second-floor residence. At this, Swarna who stayed at ground-floor of the same building, started abusing Kanchan and in the ensuing quarrel, Kanchan hit Swarna with a wooden stick on her forehead.

As Swarna collapsed on the floor, Kanchan poured mustard oil over her body and set the body on fire, police said, adding this was to conceal her involvement and make it seem like an outsider had done it.

Kanchan then went to her house in the second floor and changed her blood and oil-stained clothes.

A police officer told IANS that Kanchan didn't even tell her husband, Sumit, who was out on work, about the incident.

Police has recovered the blood-stained dress, wooden stick and an empty oil jar.

Kanchan, who has three children, hails from Ghaziabad of Uttar Pradesh.

--IANS

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