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

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

The incident took place a few days ago and in an attempt to destroy the evidence, the husband and members of his family buried the victim Reshma Khatun's body in a local graveyard.

However, Khatun's family approached a local court demanding the immediate retrieval of the body from the graveyard.

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

The accused husband and his parents are currently absconding.

Police personnel from the Harishchandrapur Police Station have started an investigation into 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.

Alam further claimed that 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.

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 alleged.

With inputs from IANS