MUMBAI, March 9: A woman murdered her three-year-old adopted daughter on Sunday morning at Tardeo by smashing her head with a grinding stone and then strangling her. Sapna, whom neighbours described as ``very sweet'', was adopted only two years back.Tardeo police have arrested Savita Gawde (40), a resident of the slums outside the gate no. 2 of the Mahalaxmi Race Course, and are also interrogating her husband Sadanand (35). Neighbours, who rushed the girl to the Nair Hospital after they spotted her lying on the floor bleeding from her head, said Savita was sitting nearby without a trace of remorse on her face. ``Only after a small crowd gathered in her house and people started asking questions did she break down,'' said a neighbour.Later, at the police station, however, Savita maintained that Sapna hurt herself when she slipped and fell in the bathroom. But the post-mortem report revealed that Sapna's head was hit with a heavy object and that she was strangled after she lost consciousness.Speaking toExpress Newsline under conditions of anonymity, Savita's neighbours said she never accepted Sapna as her child. She would beat her brutally and even force the girl to help her with domestic chores. ``This girl is mad.she does not listen to me at all. I will teach her a lesson,'' was her usual complaint, said a woman.Police confirmed that there were several scars on Sapna's body which proved that she had been beaten up ruthlessly in the last two years. Sapna was adopted two years ago from one S K Satpate, Savita's uncle, at Tulsiwadi.A sub-inspector said that Savita was a normal woman and she did not suffer from mental illnesses. However, she would be sent for a medical check up, he added. She has been remanded to police custody till March 23 and has been detained at Nagpada police station.A case of murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code has been registered in the Tardeo police station.
