BUXAR, 2 FEB

A woman has been taken into custody on charges of strangling her eight-year-old stepdaughter, Aanchal Kumari, before setting her body on fire and concealing the charred remains in a gunny bag, police reported on Sunday.

The grim discovery was made on Saturday night when the victim's family filed a missing person's complaint. Following this, the Dumraon police launched an immediate search operation. Upon searching the house in the Naya Bhojpur area, officers found Aanchal's charred body stuffed inside a gunny bag, hidden within a wooden box in one of the rooms.

Buxar Superintendent of Police Shubham Arya confirmed that the stepmother, during initial questioning, admitted to the crime. "She confessed to strangling her stepdaughter and subsequently burning the body," Arya said. "The remains were then concealed in the gunny bag and placed inside the wooden box."

The police have arrested the woman based on her confessional statement and the evidence collected at the crime scene. Aanchal's body has been sent for forensic examination. However, the motive behind the alleged crime remains unclear, as the accused did not provide any explanation to the authorities.

The victim's father currently resides in Delhi, and investigations are ongoing to uncover further details surrounding this tragic incident.