purulia: West Bengal: Three-year-old’s mom, paramour get death for ‘needle’ murder | Kolkata News - Times of India
22/09/2021
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/3-year-olds-mom-paramour-get-death-for-needle-murder/articleshow/86412466.cms
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/3-year-olds-mom-paramour-get-death-for-needle-murder/articleshow/86412466.cms
West Bengal: Three-year-old’s mom, paramour get death for ‘needle’ murder
Amit Singh Deo / TNN / Sep 22, 2021, 06:00 IST
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEMail
AA
Mangala Goswami was sentenced by a Purulia court on Tuesday
PURULIA: A Purulia judge on Tuesday sentenced to death the mother of a three-and-a-half-year-old child and a 70-year-old widowed tantrik with whom she stayed for killing the girl by piercing seven four-inch needles in her private parts to cure her of illness.
The July 2017 incident that had shocked Bengal led to a 10-day battle by doctors and surgeons, first at Purulia Medical College Hospital, then Bankura Sammilani Medical College Hospital and finally at SSKM Hospital to save the child.
All seven needles were surgically removed, but the child couldn’t be saved. Incidentally, among the 37 people who testified in this case, 17 were doctors and one a senior nurse, among those who fought the 10-day battle.
‘Mom turned out to be reason for child’s death’
Judge Ramesh Kumar Pradhan termed the murder as "rarest of rare". State lawyers Anwar Ali Ansari and Arup Bhattacharya said, "The court said that a mother’s lap, which is the safest for any child, turned out to be the reason for the death of a helpless child."
Death sentences given by trial courts need to be ratified by the high court.
On July 11, 2017, a routine police patrol stepped in to probe a commotion in Nadiara village, off Purulia town. Agitated villagers told police that former home guard Sanatan Goswami, now a tantrik who sang kirtans as religious gatherings, and Mangala Goswami — whose husband deserted her — were refusing to take her child to hospital even though she was crying of fever for the past two weeks.
Police shifted the child to Purulia hospital where X-rays detected seven needles stuck in her chest, lower abdomen and private parts.
Sanatan fled on July 12 and an FIR was lodged against him. Mangala was arrested a day after the child’s death on July 22.
A four-member police team from Purulia first travelled to Delhi to question Sanatan’s kin. Police learnt that one of his close relatives stayed in UP’s Pipri in Sonbhadra district and worked in a cable company. The company’s employee database led cops to his relative, and then to Sanatan, who was holed up in his Pipri home.
On September 12, police submitted a 550-page chargesheet in 57 days.
Sanatan’s family not only refused to help him with a lawyer, but his daughter-in-law also testified against him. After a four-year trial during which both Mangala and Sanatan were in custody, judge Pradhan on Friday convicted them for murder, criminal conspiracy and common intention.
The July 2017 incident that had shocked Bengal led to a 10-day battle by doctors and surgeons, first at Purulia Medical College Hospital, then Bankura Sammilani Medical College Hospital and finally at SSKM Hospital to save the child.
‘Mom turned out to be reason for child’s death’
Judge Ramesh Kumar Pradhan termed the murder as "rarest of rare". State lawyers Anwar Ali Ansari and Arup Bhattacharya said, "The court said that a mother’s lap, which is the safest for any child, turned out to be the reason for the death of a helpless child."
Death sentences given by trial courts need to be ratified by the high court.
On July 11, 2017, a routine police patrol stepped in to probe a commotion in Nadiara village, off Purulia town. Agitated villagers told police that former home guard Sanatan Goswami, now a tantrik who sang kirtans as religious gatherings, and Mangala Goswami — whose husband deserted her — were refusing to take her child to hospital even though she was crying of fever for the past two weeks.
Police shifted the child to Purulia hospital where X-rays detected seven needles stuck in her chest, lower abdomen and private parts.
Sanatan fled on July 12 and an FIR was lodged against him. Mangala was arrested a day after the child’s death on July 22.
A four-member police team from Purulia first travelled to Delhi to question Sanatan’s kin. Police learnt that one of his close relatives stayed in UP’s Pipri in Sonbhadra district and worked in a cable company. The company’s employee database led cops to his relative, and then to Sanatan, who was holed up in his Pipri home.
On September 12, police submitted a 550-page chargesheet in 57 days.
Sanatan’s family not only refused to help him with a lawyer, but his daughter-in-law also testified against him. After a four-year trial during which both Mangala and Sanatan were in custody, judge Pradhan on Friday convicted them for murder, criminal conspiracy and common intention.
FacebookTwitterLinkedinEMail