In a new development in the case involving the murder of four children inside their house in Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar, police on Sunday fished out their mother's body from a drain.
The 37-year-old woman was earlier thought to be a suspect as she had gone missing and her phone was switched off.
The killings took place in Miranpur locality under Akbarpur police station limits, where four minor children were found bludgeoned to death with a blunt object inside their house on Saturday afternoon.
The children, aged between 8 and 14 years, were living with their mother Naziya Khatoon, while their father, Niyaz (42), worked in Saudi Arabia. They were identified as Shafiq (14), Saud (12), Umar (10) and Sadiya (8).
Superintendent of Police Prachi Singh on Sunday said they located the woman's body with the help of CCTV footage.
"While the police team was searching for the woman, her body was discovered in a drain in the evening," Singh said, adding that her husband confirmed her identity after they sent him a photograph of her face.
The woman's body has been sent for post-mortem, and the exact cause of her death will only be known once the report is received, the SP said.
She said the cause of death could be anything. "She could have been murdered by someone, or she might have consumed poison before jumping in -- there are various possibilities. Until the post-mortem report is received, we cannot state anything conclusively." The SP clarified that, contrary to some speculation, her body was not found inside a sack.
As part of the investigation, the police have interviewed the woman's family members and also assessed whether there was any other person's involvement in the incident, Singh said. Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended on Kasda village in the Mahrua area on Sunday as the bodies of the four children reached their relatives' home after the post-mortem.
A large number of people, including grieving family members, neighbours and other residents, gathered for the last rites. The children were later buried in the village graveyard.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
