Domestic strife ends in tragedy: Man held for strangling 3-year-old daughter, son survives

Sagar Sadashiv Shinde 29 was arrested for allegedly strangling his three-year-old daughter Harshada and abandoning her body in a forested area in Pune districts Junnar tehsil, with the incident coming to light after his son Aryan 5 survived and was found by passersby, a police official said on Thursday.

A 3-year-old girl lost her life while her brother managed to survive a strangulation bid as the fate of the siblings got tragically entwined in the dispute their father was having with their mother. Sagar Sadashiv Shinde (29) was arrested for allegedly strangling his three-year-old daughter Harshada and abandoning her body in a forested area in Pune district's Junnar tehsil, with the incident coming to light after his son Aryan (5) survived and was found by passersby, a police official said on Thursday. Shinde, a resident of Gaikwad Basti in Moshi, had constant fights with his wife, who had left him and the two children six months ago, and this was a fallout of the domestic strife, the Alephata police station official said. ''Shinde took Aryan and Harshada to the area on the pretext of an outing on Tuesday. The crime came to light on Wednesday morning after locals spotted the boy crying near a forest patch along the Pune-Nashik highway at Santwadi. Police later contacted the children's grandparents and launched a search for the accused,'' the official said. Shinde was tracked down after he returned home and tried to mislead family members by claiming the children were staying at a rented room in Chakan, which made his relatives grow suspicious, prompting them to alert police, he added. ''Shinde was taken into custody for questioning. He has claimed he tried to kill both through strangulation but the boy managed to survive. He has been arrested under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for murder and other offences,'' the Alephanta police station official said.