3 missing sisters found dead

3 missing sisters found dead in trunk at home in Jalandhar, parents confess to killing them due to poverty
The family had migrated to Punjab from Bihar and relied on daily wages to make a living. The police said the parents poisoned their daughters to death.

Senior Superintendent of Police Rural Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar said there were no signs of physical assault on the bodies of the three sisters.

A husband-wife couple allegedly poisoned their three minor daughters to death, supposedly due to poverty, in Punjab’s Jalandhar district Sunday. The police arrested the duo after discovering the girls’ bodies hidden in a trunk from their house in the Kanpur village Monday morning.

The police identified the victims as Amrita Kumari, 9; Kanchan Kumari, 7; and Vaasu, 3. Their father, Sunil Mandal, reportedly an alcohol addict, confessed that he and his wife, Manju Mandal, killed their children due to poverty, the police said. The family had migrated to Punjab from Bihar and relied on daily wages to make a living, and the accused has two other children, aged one and two, they said.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Rural Mukhwinder Singh Bhullar said there were no signs of physical assault on the bodies of the three sisters. He added that post-mortem examinations were being conducted to determine the exact cause of death.

According to Mandal’s neighbours, he told them his daughters were missing when he returned home around 8 pm Sunday. The landlord filed a police complaint around 11 pm, following which the police visited the area and searched for the missing girls. Since no leads were found, the police returned.

On Monday morning, neighbours saw Mandal moving out of his house carrying a heavy trunk. They made him open it and found the girls’ bodies inside. He allegedly claimed that the girls got locked inside the trunk, leading to death due to suffocation.

Neighbours said Mandal frequently had disputes within his family and a history of causing physical violence. The landlord said he rented the space to Mandal two months ago and has since then asked him to vacate it due to his behaviour. TIE