An Indian-origin doctor from Oklahoma, Dr Neha Gupta, has been arrested for allegedly murdering her four-year-old daughter and making it look like an accidental drowning, authorities in Florida reported. The 36-year-old physician was arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree murder for allegedly suffocating her daughter, Aria Talathi, to death. The fatal accident happened on June 27 in El Portal, a suburb of Miami, where Gupta and her daughter were residing at a temporary rental.

According to local reports cited by the New York Post, Miami-Dade police responded to a 911 call at about 4:30 am of a possible child drowning in a residential pool. The girl was discovered unresponsive and was sped to a local hospital, where she was declared dead. Gupta, who has joint custody of her child with her ex husband Dr Saurabh Talathi, informed police that her daughter drowned by accident after she left the bed at night and roamed outside.

Autopsy Rules Out Drowning

But the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office eliminated drowning when an autopsy showed no water present in the child's lungs or stomach. Examiners discover cuts inside Aria's mouth and bruising of her cheeks, all injuries typical of asphyxiation by smothering. Investigators quoted by the New York Post believe that Gupta tried to stage the murder by putting her daughter's body into the pool so that it would appear as if it was an accidental drowning. The father did not even know his daughter was going with Gupta to Florida amid a bitter custody fight.

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Gupta's attorney, Richard Cooper, criticised the authorities for what he described as a hasty arrest. “My client feels betrayed by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office. She stayed, answered all questions and cooperated fully,” Cooper said in a statement. The defence insists that the death of the child was a "tragic accident" and that Gupta did not murder her daughter. "She has experienced the worst tragedy possible happen, and now she is in jail without bond, missing her own daughter's funeral," Cooper added.

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Neighbours in Oklahoma described being shocked upon hearing the news. "She's a pediatrician. She ought to have been able to save that child in some way," one neighbor said to local news media WSVN Miami. Miami police travelled to Oklahoma to take Gupta into custody. She will be extradited to Florida to face the murder charge. Police indicate the formal cause of death is still peding, but evidence obtained thus far prompted them to deduce that Gupta "tried to cover up the murder" by setting up the scene. Authorities have implored the public to desist from speculation until the investigation is complete.