QUEENS — The woman who was charged with strangling her stepdaughter in a Richmond Hill bathtub Friday told her husband three days earlier she wanted to kill the girl, prosecutors said.
Shamdai Arjun, 55, told her husband Aug. 16 she wanted to kill her 9-year-old stepdaughter, Ashdeep Kaur, according to the Queens District Attorney.
Three days later, Arjun choked Ashdeep, who'd only recently emigrated from India, in the bathroom of their ground-floor apartment on 112th Street, prosecutors 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. Her actions, if true, are beyond comprehension and must be severely punished," said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Ashdeep's father last saw her alive and well inside their home about 6:30 a.m. Friday morning as he left for work, according to NYPD detective Daniel Middleton.
About 3 p.m., he called home and asked Arjun if he could speak to the girl, but the stepmother said she was in the bathroom washing her hair and couldn't come to the phone, Middleton told prosecutors.
Arjun left the apartment about 5:30 p.m. along with her grandchildren, 3 and 5, but a witness stopped her to ask where the stepdaughter was, prosecutors said.
Arjun replied that Ashdeep was in the bathroom doing her hair and was waiting to be picked up by her father to go visit her uncle's home, prosecutors said.
Arjun then got into a white car with her ex-husband, Raymond Naryan, and left with her grandchildren, prosecutors said.
The witness, a woman whose identity wasn't immediately released, called Arjun's father who told her to break down the bathroom door, prosecutors said. She summoned her brother and the two broke down the door to find the girl lying naked in the bathtub with scratches to her neck and bruises on her left arm, she told prosecutors.
An emergency medical technician pronounced her dead at the scene, prosecutors said.
The city's Medical Examiner ruled her death a homicide by manual strangulation, prosecutors said.
Investigators tracked Arjun to a home in South Ozone Park where she was holed up with Naryan and their grandchildren, prosecutors said.
Police outside tried to get her to open the door or at least let the kids out, but she refused for more than an hour until about 10:30 p.m. when Naryan finally opened the door for them, prosecutors said.
Arjun was arrested and charged with murder and could face 25 years to life in prison, officials said. She's being held without bail and due back in court Sept. 2, officials said.
Naryan was charged with obstructing governmental administration and faces a year in jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted, prosecutors said.
