Mangala Goswami, the mother of the three-year-old girl from Purulia who died at the SSKM Hospital early Friday morning, has been remanded to two-day police custody after being produced at a district court on Sunday. The police had arrested her following a prolonged interrogation on late Saturday night.
The main accused, Sanatan Thakur, who had allegedly pushed seven needles into the body of the baby, is yet to be traced. Police are investigating if the baby's mother had conspired with the accused as the duo had developed an illicit relationship. The woman started living with the accused after her separation from her husband Laxmi Ratan Ghosh.
During the proceedings in a district court in Purulia,
the state counsel, Arun Majumdar made his submission as to why the woman did not
lodge any complaint or informed anybody that her minor daughter had been subjected to barbaric torture by the person with whom she had been living.
Majumdar told the court that despite her daughter being tortured with needles, the mother did not bother to register a compliant in any forum. Even after the baby was taken to SSKM Hospital why did she not report the matter to the hospital authorities or police, Majumdar asked.
This shows that the mother might have been involved in the incident.
The woman was interrogated for several hours on Saturday and was later arrested.
Abhisek Banerjee, the accused's counsel, told the court that the mother was also a victim of torture and hence, there is no question of her being involved in the crime. He also said that in the FIR which was lodged by the district child line never mentioned the mother as an accused. Then why were the police accusing her, Banerjee asked.
The police are also going to book the baby's mother on charges of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and also under Section 6 of the POCSO Act. The main accused — Thakur, who is still absconding, will be slapped with murder charges.
A team of district police officers are, however, conducting raids at various parts of the state and also in Jharkhand as the police suspect that the accused might have fled to the neighbouring state.
It has become difficult for the cops to trace the main accused as he has not been using his mobile phone.
The locals alleged that Thakur claimed that he had engaged her as a maid servant but in reality he had developed an illicit affair with the woman and this had led to the separation of the woman from her husband who was a friend of Thakur.
The accused had pushed the needles into the baby's body and later fled the house after the matter came to light.
Despite the removal of the needles by doctors at SSKM Hospital, the baby died on early Friday morning due to the infection that spread to her lungs and other organs as seven needles remained inside her for quite a long time.