THE ex-husband of the woman charged with strangling her 9-year-old stepdaughter in Queens has been arrested for trying to shield the woman from police after the horrific murder, police and prosecutors said on Sunday.Raymond Narayan, 65, the former husband of Arjun Samdhi Pardas, 55, was charged with obstructing governmental administration for refusing to allow police into his South Ozone Park home, where the alleged killer stepmom was being kept on Saturday, according to police and the Queens District Attorney’s office.

Police charged Pardas with the murder of little Ashdeep Kaur. She was found dead, curled in the fetal position in the bathtub of their 112th St. apartment near 101st Ave. in South Richmond Hill on Friday, police 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,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement. “Her actions, if true, are beyond comprehension and must be severely punished,” he said.

Police and Brown said a neighbor at the three-story complex asked Pardas about the girl when she saw the stepmom leaving the apartment with her ex-husband Raymond Narayan and her grandchildren, ages 3 and 5, around 5:30 p.m. the day of the killing. Pardas told her the girl was taking a shower, police said. But the neighbor’s concern only elevated as she noticed the bathroom light had been on since 11 a.m., the D.A.’s office said.

The neighbor then called Ashdeep’s father, Sukhjinder Singh, who told her to break the door down. That’s when the neighbor and her brother, who helped breach the bathroom, made the tragic discovery around 6 p.m., police said. When cops tracked Paradas down to Narayan’s South Ozone Park home on 134th St., Narayan refused to come out or open his door to them for over an hour, Brown’s office said.

The girl had only lived with her father and stepmom a short while. Ashdeep emigrated to Queens from India, where she lived with her mother, just three months ago, relatives said. But in that limited time it had already become apparent to Ashdeep’s uncle that Pardas was abusing her. “(Ashdeep) told me she got beat up by her,” the uncle, Manjinder Singh, said on Saturday.

Pardas and Narayan were awaiting arraignment Sunday afternoon. If convicted, Parabas faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison; also, if found guilty, Narayan faces a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail.

(NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)