A woman allegedly strangulated her three-year-old stepdaughter to death at Lakhapadar village under the Narla police station in Kalahandi district on Saturday evening.
The deceased was identified as Nandini. Her father Jugeswar Sahu had married one Asha Sahu after the death of his first wife.
Sources said Nandini had returned to the house in the evening after playing outside. After sometime, Asha strangulated the kid to death though the reason behind the murder was yet to be ascertained. When Jugeswar reached the house at night, Asha told him that Nandini was sleeping. When he tried to wake the child up, he found her dead.
Later, Nandini’s maternal uncle lodged a complaint at the Narla police station. Police reached the spot and sent the child’s body for postmortem. The cops also took Jugeswar and Asha into custody.
“A complaint has been lodged by the girl’s maternal uncle. We have detained two suspects and are interrogating them in this connection,” said a police official.