Pune: Brother kills teen sister, stages death as suicide

Safiya was a student of a local school, police said. The incident took place sometime around 2.30 am on June 17.

Sharikh reported his sister’s death to police as suicide on the morning of June 17. Subsequently, the police registered a case of death pending probe into the causes.

Inspector Mangal Modhave, investigation officer in the case, said, “While the death was reported to us as suicide by hanging, the autopsy suggested that she had been strangled to death. Further probe pointed to the brother having murdered his sister. He was subsequently arrested.”

Another officer said, “The probe suggests that the two had been having arguments for quite a while. On the intervening night of June 16 and 17, when family members were not home, the siblings got into a fight. It began with an argument over who would sleep on a particular bed. The sister tried to attack the brother with a kitchen knife after which the brother is suspected to have strangled her to death.”

The police registered a case of murder against Sharikh on Saturday and arrested him. He has been remanded to police custody.