Widow kills two daughters, survives suicide attempt

Shilpa Joshi’s neighbour Sandeep Rawal can’t shake off the eerie feeling that he was the last to see her two children alive.

Shilpa poisoned her young daughters and herself on Tuesday night. While three-and-a-half-year-old Ayushi and one-and-a-half-year-old Vriti died, Shilpa survived and is in the ICU at Sion hospital.

Sandeep, 26, is Shilpa’s neighbour at Sriniketan building in Sion where she fed her family pesticide. 

He said, “Around 7 pm on Tuesday, she rang our doorbell and asked for water and a candle. The empty flat in the building belongs to Shilpa’s parents and she said she had come to pay the electricity bill. I gave her a bottle and a lighted candle and she left saying she would speak to me later.”

Around 11 pm, Sandeep heard screams from the flat. He found Shilpa’s frantic mother Niru standing next to her daughter and granddaughters who were foaming from the mouth. Niru had come from Navi Mumbai after she got no response to repeated calls to the flat.

Sandeep said, “My neighbours and I took the three victims to Sion hospital where the two children were declared dead before admission. Shilpa was admitted to the ICU. We then called the police.”

Police say they have registered a case of murder and attempt to commit suicide against Shilpa. “Shilpa who is in the intensive care unit of Sion Hospital, is said to be out of danger,” said senior police inspector Tulsiram Nagre of Sion hospital. He added that they are yet to ascertain the motive behind the murder and suicide attempt. The police will record her statement as soon as she is out of the ICU.

The police have also recovered the pesticide bottle and have sent it to the Kalina forensic lab for chemical analysis. 

A close relative of Shilpa said, “We don’t know why she killed her daughters. She always seemed calm and well-adjusted.”
Shilpa’s devastated mother refused to speak. 

Interestingly, Shilpa’s husband Viral, 32, had killed himself last November by slitting his throat at his flat in Sai Kripa building, Sion. He had accused a close friend, Nitin Oberoi, of ruining his life.

The Sion police later arrested Oberoi, a mobile shop owner at Sion, under Section 306 (abetment of suicide) of the IPC. He is currently out on bail, said senior police inspector Tulsiram Nagre of Sion police station.