Unhappy over girl’s birth, father kills 7-month-old

Ranitala (Murshidabad): A seven-month-old girl was killed allegedly by her father in a Murshidabad village on Monday in a case of female

infanticide

. Al Mamun Sheikh was arrested the same day and charged with murder under IPC Section 302, besides other offences.

“During the last seven months, I did sense my husband was unhappy that we had had a girl child. But I never thought he would kill Sairin,” said Naima Bibi, who filed the police complaint.

Naima and Mamun married two years ago and lived in Ranitala’s Jibanpur village. After conceiving, Naima moved to her parents’ home in Daspara, adjoining Jibanpur, about 250km from Kolkata. Sairin was born in the nearby Lalbagh hospital. Naima returned to her parents’ home with her baby.

“My husband used to visit me at my parents’ home during my pregnancy. But on hearing we had a girl child, he never came to see our first baby, leave alone meet me,” Naima said. She was to return to her in-laws’ house with the baby on Tuesday. Mamum, Naima said, arrived on Monday evening to take them back to Jibanpur.

“On seeing our daughter for the first time, my husband said he wanted to take her out for a while,” Naima recalled. “I later heard from neighbours that they heard a baby’s shrill cry from a pond about 150 metres from our house and rushed there.”

She claimed the neighbours saw her husband, who started running. “Some others caught my husband,” Naima said. On the way to court, Mamum said: “I had quarrelled with my wife after we had a daughter.”

Ranitala police station was informed and Mamum was arrested on Monday night. On the way to Lalbagh court on Tuesday, Mamum said: “I was angry. I had quarrelled with my wife after we had a daughter.”

Additional SP Tanmay Sarkar said: “The accused has confessed his crime. We have taken him into police custody to ascertain what drove him to commit such a cruel act.”

Ranjan Bhattacharya, head of department, psychology at Murshidabad Medical College Hospital, said: “Such incidents happen primarily due to socio-economic factors. Medical reasons such as impulse control disorder and bipolar disorder too can drive one to commit such a crime.”

ENDS