Chennai: A 38-year-old woman set her 10-year-old daughter ablaze in Tamil Nadu. The child, who suffered 75% burns, succumbed to the grievous injuries on Monday.
What drove Jayalakshmi to such a cold-blooded crime?
Her husband Padmanabhan dared her to kill the child – class 5 student Pavithra — to prove her fidelity!
Jayalakshmi and Padmanabhan – who happens to be third husband — were arrested by police and produced in a court, which found both guilty and sent them to jail.
According to police, Jayalakshmi has a teenaged daughter — from her first marriage with Palvannan – who is a nursing student in Tuticorin.
Jayalakshmi reportedly left Palvannan and married his younger brother Durairaj, after which she gave birth to Pavithra, as per a report in The Times of India.
A few years later, Jayalakshmi broke up with Durairaj and returned to Chennai where she met tanker driver Padmanabhan, a divorcee. They got married and have two daughters aged six and four.
Pavithra had been staying with them.
Padmanabhan used to suspect Jayalakshmi had relations with other men. Following a tiff on Sunday night, Padmanabhan challenged Jayalakshmi to set her daughter ablaze, saying that Pavithra will be if Jayalakshmi was innocent, the TOI report said.
Surprisingly, Jayalakshmi dragged Pavithra out of the room where she was sleeping with her step-sisters, put kerosene on her body and set her on fire.
Neighbours rushed to the house on hearing screams and took the child to the hospital. But the girl didn’t survive more than 12 hours.
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