Bengaluru, Aug 18: An indigent young woman accidentally smothered her dengue-stricken three-year-old daughter by keeping her hand on the child’s mouth for long so as to stop her crying.
Naziya Sultana, a resident of Veerannapalya, KG Halli, had no money to spend on the treatment of her daughter, Rubiya Kousar, who was diagnosed with having dengue a month ago. On the evening of August 14, the child started crying. Sultana didn’t know what to do and, in a state of utter helplessness, she too started sobbing.
As the child’s cries grew louder, Sultana got frustrated and tightly closed the child’s mouth with her hand.
A while later, the child stopped crying but Sultana kept sobbing. It took her a while to realise that the girl had become motionless. The child had quietly died.
Sultana was so broke that she didn’t have the money to bury Kousar.
She sneaked the body out of her home and dumped it near Rahmaniya Masjid at Veerannapalya. She then came back home. Some time later, local residents spotted the body and called the police.
Police then uploaded the child’s photograph on their website and circulated pamphlets.
Some local residents came forward to identify the child and told the police about Sultana, an officer said.
When police questioned her, she narrated the whole story and how Kousar had suffocated.
Sultana had married Asif Ahmad, an auto-rickshaw driver, against her family’s wishes four years ago.
Ahmad’s family had opposed the alliance too. A year into the wedding, Sultana gave birth to Kousar. Soon after the child was born, the couple began quarrelling over petty issues.
A year ago, Ahmed deserted her and she stared staying alone. She took up a job at a private clinic.
Sultana has been booked for causing death due to negligence under section 304 (A) of the IPC and sent to jail.
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