An Indian-origin woman in the US has been sentenced to 22 years to life in prison for strangling her nine-year-old stepdaughter to death in a bathtub, a crime described as “unimaginable” by the court.
Shamdai Arjun, 55, of Queens, New York was convicted last month of second-degree murder of her step daughter Ashdeep Kaur by the Jury. She was sentenced Monday to an indeterminate term of 22 years to life in prison. “The defendant in this case goes beyond the tales of evil stepmothers. This defendant committed the unimaginable – she wrapped her hands around her stepdaughter’s little neck and squeezed the life out of her,” Acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan said in a harsh statement after the verdict.
“The victim was an innocent child and just nine years old. The Court has imposed a sentence that will likely guarantee this woman never sees freedom again. The sentence of the Court is more than warranted in this tragic case, Ryan said.
Kaur had arrived in the US from India just three months before she was killed in August 2016 and was living with her father and Arjun in an apartment in Queens that was shared with another couple.