Step-mom arrested for 9-year-old’s murder in New York

A nine-year-old Indian girl was found dead under mysterious circumstances in her house here with police charging her step-mother for the murder.

Ashdeep Kaur had moved to Queens, New York, from India just three months ago and lived in an apartment with her father Sukhjinder Singh, 35, and her stepmother Arjun Samdhi Pardas, 55, that was shared with another couple.

Ashdeep was found dead in the bathtub of her home with bruises on her body. Pardas has been charged with murder for allegedly strangling Ashdeep on Friday, the New York Post quoted sources as saying.

The housemate had seen Ashdeep going in the bathroom with Pardas, who later came out alone and left the building. She allegedly said that Ashdeep was taking a bath.

When Ashdeep did not come out, the housemate checked and discovered her lifeless body in the bathtub that had no water.

Pardas was nowhere to be found when Ashdeep’s body was discovered. Police found her several hours later at another location in Queens and took her for questioning. “The petit woman held back tears as detectives walked her out of the precinct in Richmond Hill, Queens, in handcuffs Saturday night — then burst into sobs in the car,” New York Post reported. Sukjinder Singh, pale from grief, had to be held up by relatives on Saturday as he left the 102nd Precinct station house.

The day before, upon learning his daughter was dead, Singh collapsed on the sidewalk.

Ashdeep’s relatives said the young girl had been previously allegedly abused by Pardas, who had been entrusted with her care while Singh worked in a local restaurant. “She always told me she does not like to be with her stepmother. Sometimes she got beatings from her,” Ashdeep’s uncle Manjinder Singh said in the report. “Sometimes she grabbed her, threw her on the bed. I’m not thinking she’s going to kill her.”

Mandinna Singh, a cousin of Kaur’s father, said of the girl in a report in New York Daily News, “There was no water, but she was in the tub.”

Ashdeep’s mother, who lives in India, was devastated by the news, relatives said. She and the girl’s father are divorced.