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Faridabad police have arrested a woman named Neelam for allegedly strangling her 18-month-old daughter and leaving her body in a drain in Palla.

The incident was discovered on April 23 when two schoolchildren found the toddler's body trapped in an iron mesh in Budhiya Nala between Dheeraj Nagar and Titu Colony. The body was taken to the police station, and an autopsy revealed the child had died due to drowning.

Footage from a nearby CCTV showed the mother going to the drain in the morning with the child and coming back. Neelam, a Madhubani native from Bihar who works in a cloth mill, admitted to the crime upon questioning. She claimed acute poverty, saying that she was struggling to rear her children, four sons and this daughter.

Her husband is a welder. A case has been registered, and the police are investigating. The event has led to an outcry about child safety and poverty in India's metropolis.