Bengal: Pregnant woman murdered by husband, in-laws in anticipation of girl child

Kolkata: In a gruesome incident in West Bengal’s Malda district, a pregnant woman was brutally murdered by her husband and in-laws in anticipation that she might give birth to another girl child.

The incident occurred a few days ago and in an attempt to destroy the evidence, the accused husband and members of his family even buried Reshma Khatun’s body in a local graveyard.

However, the family members of the victim approached a local court demanding the immediate retrieval of the body from the graveyard.

The body has been exhumed and was sent for post-mortem on Saturday, the police said.

The husband and his parents are currently absconding.

Police personnel from the Harishchandrapur Police Station have started investigation in the matter and alerts have been sent to all police stations with pictures of the absconding accused.

The victim’s father Nazir Alam told the police that since his daughter got married three years ago, she was constantly humiliated by her in-laws for his inability to pay an amount of Rs 2 lakhs as per their demand.

After a year of the marriage, she gave birth to a girl child which made her husband and in-laws even more furious towards her, Alam further claimed.

He added that as she got pregnant again this year, the accused tortured her even more anticipating that she might give birth to another girl child.

Finally that anticipation prompted them to kill her through strangulation, Alam claimed.

IANS