News

Labasa family recounts horrific attack on daughter

August 22, 2019 5:05 pm

A mother of three is dead following what can only be described as a night of horror at Navoalevu, Wainikoro, outside of Labasa, last night.

Alleged to have been hacked several times with a cane knife by her husband, Saleshni Devi’s murder was witnessed by her parents and her two-year-old daughter.

35-year-old Devi had been living in her father’s house in Navoalevu, Wainikoro – a small farming community outside Labasa for the past two months, with her three children 11-year-old Sabneet Lal, nine-year-old Rikansha Lal and two-year-eight-month-old Shanaya Lal following a spat with her husband, Rohit Lal.

Article continues after advertisement

It’s alleged that around seven last night, Lal came to the house and turned off the power supply to the house by tampering with the meter box.

When Devi came outside to check, Lal allegedly grabbed her and struck her with the cane knife several times.

Devi’s grief-stricken father Narendra Prasad while recounting the violence said he could do nothing but watch as his daughter was horrifically struck.

Prasad said when his daughter was struck the first time she used all her courage and ran inside the house.

The deceased’s 67-year-old mother Sambha Wati and two-year-old daughter Shanaya were inside the house and witnessed the suspect striking her repeatedly.

Wati says she chased her son-in-law but he also threatened to kill them all.

Wati says she managed to save her youngest granddaughter.

The suspect, then allegedly fled the scene after the family shouted for help.

Police arrived at the scene two hours later and Devi had passed on by then.

The suspect was later arrested at his home in Daku, Wainikoro and is now in police custody.