A 32-year-old Indian mother pleaded guilty at the High Court in Hong Kong on Wednesday to one count of manslaughter for strangling her 3-year-old daughter.
Mahajan Meera, who had been suffering from schizophrenia, lost control and squeezed her daughter’s neck in an apartment in Fanling in the New Territories in February last year, the Oriental Daily reported.
The court earlier head that the woman’s husband received a call from his wife and was told their daughter had fainted after being strangled. When the husband and police rushed to their home, the girl was unconsciously and later pronounced dead at a hospital.
After her arrest, the woman told police that she pressed the girl’s neck because she thought the girl had problems breathing after a long afternoon nap. Then said she suddenly lost control and became angry with the girl and squeezed her neck.
She later told police she thought it was good that her daughter died because she did not want her to grow up and be like her. Psychiatrists later concluded she was suffering from schizophrenia at that time, the Apple Daily reported.
The woman, whose family members have histories of depression, first started to suffer mental problems in India in 2008. She moved to Hong Kong in 2013 after her husband secured a job there.
High Court judge Madam Justice Esther Toh Lye-ping said the case was a tragedy. She issued a hospital order and sent the woman to Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre in Tuen Mun on the condition she only be allowed to be released after her condition improved.