Mumbai Crime: 15-year-old girl kills mother with karate belt over studies

A 15-year-old girl has been booked by the Rabale police on August 8 for allegedly murdering her 41-year-old mother at their residence.

The incident took place on July 30 at Airoli`s Rakesh Society. The girl, who passed her SSC exams last week, had a heated argument with her mother as she was persuading her to study for the national medical entrance exam. In a fit of rage, the teen pushed her mother, who hit a corner of the bed, and then strangled her to death with a karate belt.

Assistant police inspector Avinash Mahajan of Rabale police station received a call from a person named Shailesh Pawar. Pawar told Mahajan that his 41-year-old sister has sent him a message indicating that she might attempt suicide. The cop told Pawar to rush to her house and that they would also reach soon.

When Pawar reached the building, he found both his nieces – 15-year-old and 6-year-old inside the flat. When asked about her mother, the 15-year-old said she is in the bedroom.

“When our team reached the spot and broke open the bedroom door they found Shilpa Jadhav lying on the bed and a karate belt tied around her neck. She was rushed to NMMC Hospital in Vashi where she was declared dead on arrival,” said an officer from Rabale police station.

During the investigation, the cops shortlisted four witnesses for questioning. Meanwhile, the post-mortem report revealed the cause of death as ‘asphsxial death due to strangulation along with head injury`. After the autopsy report, the cops realised that the woman had died due to an impact on her head, followed by strangulation.

“We set up a special team to investigate every person. While investigating, we found out that the relation between the mother and daughter was not sound as they would often fight over her studies,” told DCP (zone 1) Suresh Mengde. “After three rounds of questioning, we suspected that the 15-year-old girl was hiding something. The officers were told to probe her further with utmost care and sympathy and it helped in cracking the case,” he added.

The girl told the cops that her parents wanted her to be a doctor and were pushing her since May to study for the medical entrance test ‘NEET’. To keep consistency in her studies, her mother used to keep a tab on her routine and would point out whenever she was on the mobile phone. They both had fights over the same and on July 27, the girl left home and went to her maternal uncle`s place. The matter reached Rabale police station where the cops counselled both of them and told them not to have arguments over studies.

On July 30, they had another argument. The mother took out a knife in her hand and the girl pushed her back, resulting in her mother hitting her head on the corner of the bed. When the girl found her non-responsive, she allegedly strangled her to death with her own karate belt. The girl allegedly tried to pass off the incident as suicide and sent a message from her mother`s phone to her father, uncle and maternal aunty, reading `I tried everything, I quit`.

However, the autopsy report confirmed it to be murder. The girl has been booked under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).