By Gina Martinez
A Richmond Hill woman who been charged with killing her 9-year-old girl stepdaughter told a neighbor three days earlier that she would kill Ashdeep Kaur, prosecutors said.
Shamdai Arjun, 55, was arraigned Monday on a criminal complaint accusing her of second-degree murder with intent to kill another person, the Queens district attorney said. She faces up to 25 years in jail if convicted.
Last Friday police arrived at 95-50 112th St. at around 6 p.m. where they discovered 9-year-old Ashdeep unconscious and unresponsive inside the first floor bathroom, NYPD said. The girl was pronounced dead at the scene.
The medical examiner determined the cause of death was manual strangulation, the DA said.
“This is a horrifying case of a child, a defenseless 9-year-old, who was left in the care of her stepmother who allegedly strangled her to death,” DA Richard Brown said. “Her actions, if true, are beyond comprehension and must be severely punished.”
According to the criminal complaint filed by the DA, one witness was told by Arjun three days before the murder that she planned to kill the little girl.
At around 3 p.m. Aug. 19 Ashdeep’s father called Arjun and asked to speak to his daughter. Arjun told him she could not because she was in the bathroom washing her hair, according to prosecutors.
Eyewitnesses saw Arjun leaving her 112th Street apartment with her ex-husband, Raymond Narayan, 65, and her two grandchildren, ages 3 and 5, at 5:30 p.m., according to DA Brown. When asked about Ashdeep, Arjun told the eyewitness that she was in the bathroom waiting for her father to pick her up, Brown said. The eyewitness saw that the bathroom light had been on since 11 a.m. that morning and called Ashdeep’s father, who asked the neighbor to break into the bathroom. It was then they discovered the girl’s lifeless body in the bathtub, DA Brown said.
Detectives went to Raymond Narayan’s Ozone Park apartment, and found him, Arjun and her two grandchildren inside. Narayan refused to let police into the apartment for over an hour, Brown said. Narayan eventually let police in and he and Arjun were arrested, according to the DA office.
Narayan faces up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine if convicted of obstruction of justice.
Reach Gina Martinez by e-mail at gmart
