A 9-year-old Indian girl was found dead in her house in New York under mysterious circumstances. Police later charged her 55-year-old stepmother with murder.
Ashdeep Kaur had moved to her father Sukhjinder Singh and stepmother Arjun Samdhi Pardas just three months ago from India. The family lived in a New York apartment that they shared with another family.
The nine-year-old was found dead in the bathtub of her apartment and had bruises on her body. She was allegedly strangled by her stepmother on Friday, the New York Post reported.
A woman sharing the house with the family said she had seen Ashdeep going in the bathroom with Pardas who later came out of the bathroom alone and left the building.
The woman checked the bathroom when Ashdeep did not come out, and found her dead body in the bathtub that had no water.
Pardas was not at home at the time of the discovery of the body. She was later taken for questioning from another location in the town.
According to Ashdeep’s relatives, she had been abused by her stepmother earlier as well when she was girl was in her care while Sukhjinder worked at a local restaurant.
"She always told me she does not like to be with her stepmother. Sometimes she got beatings from her," Ashdeep's uncle Manjinder Singh was quoted as saying.
"Sometimes she grabbed her, threw her on the bed. I'm not thinking she's going to kill her."
He said Singh wanted his daughter to have good education and a good life in the US.
“Her father wanted her to be here, to stay in US. There are better schools over here. Everything is good. She was doing good, learning English.”
Ashdeep's mother, who lives in India, was devastated by the news, relatives said. She and the girl's father are divorced.
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