In a shocking incident, a 30-year-old woman, who was suffering from depression, allegedly killed her minor daughter and then committed suicide at their home in Maharashtra''s Thane district, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place around Wednesday midnight at Chirgaon in Badlapur township, senior police inspector D V Deshmukh said.
The woman's husband, who works in the Mumbai Police force, left the house in the evening for duty, he said.
After dinner, the woman went with her daughter in the bedroom while her mother-in-law and nephew slept in the hall of the house.
Later, the mother-in-law heard shouts from the bedroom, which was locked from inside. She tried to break open its door, but in vain.
Some of their neighbours then rushed in, broke open the bedroom door and found the seven-year-old girl lying dead with multiple stab wounds caused by a kitchen knife on her neck and abdomen, the official said.
The woman was also found lying near the child with injury marks on her neck. She was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared her brought dead, he said.
"As per preliminary reports, the woman was under depression and that possibly led to the incident," he said.
The bodies were sent for postmortem and a case was registered, he added.