A teenage girl has been detained in Odisha’s Gajapati for allegedly murdering her adoptive mother with the help of her two male friends, police said Friday.
According to the police, the victim, 54-year-old Bhubaneswar native Rajalaxmi Kar, had found the girl abandoned on a road when she was three and adopted her. The duo had moved to a rented accommodation in Gajapati district to be closer to the child’s school.
The two accomplices have been identified as Ganesh Rath, 21, and Dinesh Sahu, 20, who worked as assistants at a temple.
On the evening of April 29, the minor girl allegedly administered sleeping pills to Rajalaxmi, Gajapati Superintendent of Police Jatindra Kumar Panda said. Then, together with her two friends, she allegedly smothered the woman with a pillow.
“The three then took her to the hospital, where she was declared dead,” Panda said.
The girl then allegedly informed relatives that her mother had died of a cardiac arrest. “The family members believed the story because of her history of heart disease. On April 30, they cremated the body in Puri and took the daughter to their home in Bhubaneswar,” he said.
It was the woman’s brother, Siba Prasad Mishra, who approached the police on April 14 after he allegedly found the minor’s secret mobile phone and checked her social media chats. There, he allegedly found that the girl discussed plans to kill her mother.
Based on the complaint, the police registered an FIR for murder and arrested the girl and her two friends. According to the police, the two men stole 70 grams of gold and Rs 60,000 in cash from the woman’s house after the incident.
The girl was allegedly upset after her mother objected to her friendship with the two men. “They persuaded the girl to commit the crime,” Panda said.
The two men are currently in police custody and the minor girl has been sent to a correctional home.
