KOTTAYAM: A 38-year-old woman attempted suicide after killing her 12-year-old daughter in Koottikkal near Mundakkayam in the wee hours of Sunday. The police said Laijeena jumped into a well on their residential premises after strangling her daughter, Shamna at around 4 am.
Hearing a scream, neighbours rushed to her house and found her in the well. When she was rescued by the local people with the help of the fire and rescue unit from Mundakkayam, Laijeena told the rescuers that she had strangled her daughter with a shawl after giving her sleeping pills. Though the girl was rushed to a hospital, she was declared dead.
The police team also recovered a suicide note written by Laijeena from the house. The note did not mention any other person's involvement in the incident, sources said Since her husband, Shameer, is working overseas, only Laijeena and daughter were at home. Laijeena was admitted to the government medical college. According to her relatives, Laijeena had earlier undergone treatment for mental illness.
The Mundakkayam police have registered a case for unnatural death, which will be changed to a murder case after interrogating Laijeena. The forensic team and fingerprint experts collected evidence from the spot. Shamna was a Class VII student of St Joseph’s School, Mundakkayam.