Mother-in-law lynched for killing woman, 18 held

Infuriated mob lynched a mother-in-law, who allegedly killed a newly married woman in South 24 Parganas Kultali police station area.

The body of Rani Saha was found near a marshy land on Tuesday morning. The angry villagers gheraod the accused mother-in-law Nanda Saha at her residence, soon after the body was found.

She was beaten to death before police could reach there to rescue her.

This incident is a grim reminder of a similar incident which had taken place in Birbhum a few months back.

In that incident, a housewife was killed by his husband at Margram in Birbhum district. The neighbours recovered the body beside her thatched house.

They called up the police who took the body to morgue for post-mortem. Hasina Biwi, the 24-year-old woman was strangled to her death. Her husband, Ramzan Sheikh is the man, whom the investigator suspected as the culprit. Ramzan is still absconding.

Meanwhile in Kultali’s incident, police have arrested 18 people including Paltu Saha, the husband of the slain housewife.

“We have arrested many villagers who were involved in the lynching. Nobody should take law in their own hands. However, the accused husband was been arrested,” said a police officer.

Dowry is the main reason behind these two incidents according to the police. In the Birbhum incident, the woman was strangled with her dupatta. Her husband dumped the body beside the house. 

But the neighbour spotted the body there. The accused escaped from there when they were searching for him. Five years ago, accused husband was given a cash of Rs 1.05 lakh as dowry along with jewelleries worth Rs 50,000. But his demand was much bigger than what he was given.

In the case of Kultali, the Saha family demanded Rs 5 lakh to the father of girl.