Hyderabad woman who killed daughter remanded in police custody

Shagufta Aftab confessed to choking her six-year-old daughter to death in her sleep

HYDERABAD: A woman, identified as Shagufta Aftab, who was arrested by the police and subsequently confessed to killing her six-year-old daughter last week, was remanded on Monday by a court in Hyderabad to three days in police custody.



On Saturday, the Hyderabad police had declared the suspect's arrest, disclosing that she has admitted to killing her daughter, Armish.

She allegedly asphyxiated Armish by covering her mouth and nose with her hands until she died. She later packed the body in a black plastic bag and threw it on the street's corner in Latifabad Unit 10 where the family lived.

The Hussainabad Sub-Divisional Police Officer AD Jumani said the suspect put her daughter to sleep by giving her a syrup before killing her. "She says the domestic violence she and her daughter had been going through at the hands of her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law prompted her to resort to the murder," Jumani said.

According to the DSP, Shagufta said she also wanted to take her own life after killing Armish. Jumani said that the police identified the suspected killer with the help of CCTV footage. In the footage, a woman clad in black burqa is seen dumping a plastic bag around the corner of the street. In another video, the face-covered Shagufta can be seen returning home. The DSP said Shagufta's husband, Muhammad Aftab Arain, on whose complaint the FIR was registered on Thursday against an unknown killer, identified the woman with her gait.

Meanwhile, the civil judge and judicial magistrate Shahnawaz Jamari recorded the suspect's confessional statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Shagufta urged the court to bring her husband, father-in-law and mother-in-law under investigation as well, holding them responsible for the killing.



According to her, Armish was their only child and she was born many years after their marriage. She alleged that her husband and in-laws used to taunt her for not bearing another child or a son. "Armish's grandparents had turned her against me and she often used to tell me what's right and what's wrong," the suspect said. She further claimed that Arain was threatening her with divorce and expulsion from their home.

Upon the court's query with regard to the physical remand, Investigation Officer Nasir Rao said the police are yet to recover the material used to kill the child.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 2^nd, 2018.