Minor burnt with frying pan in Siliguri

In a bid to punish a little girl, a woman pressed a hot frying pan on several parts of her body. The neighbours managed to rescue the girl who was crying with severe pain. An NGO, which took the initiatives to hospitalise the girl, lodged a complaint with local police station. Amrita Gurung, the accused woman was arrested.

A 10-year-old girl was employed as domestic help of a house at Siliguri’s New Chamta Area. The girl, an orphan, was taken up by the accused woman from her grandmother’s place. Amrita promised to take responsibility of the little girl, including her education.

But the girl was neither admitted to the school or was she given healthy food to grow up. “On Friday evening, the girl was sweeping the room with a broom when Amrita called her to the kitchen. She then beat her up, and took the hot frying pan and burnt her face and palms,” an investigating officer said.

On grilling the accused, investigators learnt that the woman had given the girl an assignment which she had forgotten to carry out. “Amrita was furious to know that the girl forgot to wash the frying pan which would later be used for cooking momos. She called her up punish her with the hot frying pan, which was placed on the oven just before the incident,” the officer added. 

The police even did not know about the incident till the NGO had reported it to them. “Some locals who rescued the girl from the woman reported the whole incident to NGO representatives. The members of NGO called us and rescue the girl. They admitted the girl to a local hospital,” police further said. Amrita, an Integrated Child Development Worker (ICDS) was known for his social work in the locality. But the neighbours were really amazed by the act committed with the girl. “She is an ICDS employee, so we preferred to drop our child with her observation. She had also promised us to take care of her, including her education. We are a poor family; it was not possible for us to bring the girl up properly. But we could not imagine such incident would happened to herl,” a family member of the victim said.