Couple ‘poisons’ 4 daughters, cremates bodies

The Azamgarh police on Monday lodged a murder case against a couple, accusing them of administering poison to four of their minor daughters and cremating the bodies in an attempt to destroy the evidence early on Sunday.

The couple had told neighbours and the police that the girls died from food poisoning.

Azamgarh Range Deputy Inspector General Ram Kumar said the couple had cremated the bodies at an unearthly hour and cleaned up the house in an attempt to destroy evidence. A police team, led by a sub-divisional magistrate, has been trying to collect evidence with the help of forensic experts.

Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) Mirza Manzar Beig said they started an inquiry after watchman of Chakwari village Ram Adhar Yadav informed the police about the mysterious death of Virendra Gaur's four daughters — 11-year-old twins Mannu and Rannu, Sunita (8) and Ujala (5), at 1 am on Sunday.

The watchman also informed that Gaur and his nephew Surendra cremated the bodies on the banks of Tamsa river by 4 am. No one in the village was told about it.

Beig said that they were informed around noon yesterday and visited the place where the girls' last rites were performed, only to find that Gaur and Surendra had washed the place with water. The police team later went to Gaur's house and found the room where the girls died had been cleaned with water and mopped.

Gaur told the police that his daughters had eaten stale daal and rice on Saturday evening and their condition deteriorated late in the night. He also told the police that the girls died before they could be taken to hospital.

However, Gaur could not give a convincing reply as to why he did not take the girls to the hospital as food poisoning cannot cause death so quickly. He also could not answer why he cremated the bodies within three hours of the deaths — that too in the night, said the ASP.

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