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Grandma dips 2-year-old girl’s hand in boiling oil in Ludhiana
60-year-old has been arrested and sent in judicial remand; toddler’s mother claims she had tried to kill the girl last year too
Upset with her daughter-in-law for not bearing a son, an elderly woman burnt the hand of her two-year-old granddaughter by placing it in a pot of boiling oil, police said on Saturday.
The toddler has sustained severe burn injuries and is currently undergoing treatment at the civil hospital.
Following the complaint of the girl’s mother, Basti Jodhewal police arrested the accused woman, who has been identified as Darshana Devi, 60, a resident of Panchsheel Colony on Noorwala Road.
The complainant, Sangeeta, alleged that her mother-in-law had also attempted to kill her daughter in October 2019 by suffocating her.
“My daughter was somehow saved with the help of locals and cops,” she said.
“But, on Friday evening, Darshana again took my daughter to kitchen and dipped her hand in a pot of boiling oil. After hearing her screams, I rushed to the kitchen and rescued her,” she added.
In her complaint to the police, Sangeeta has stated that her mother-in-law is a midwife.
“After I gave birth to a girl child, behaviour of my mother-in-law changed abruptly. She started cursing me for not bearing a male child,” she said.
‘Mother-in-law pressuring me to sell my daughter’
Sangeeta further alleged that Darshana Devi was mounting pressure on her to sell her daughter.
Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Resham Kumar, who is investigating the case, said an FIR under section 326-A (voluntarily causing grievous hurt by use of acid) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act has been registered against the accused, who has been arrested.
She was produced in a local court on Saturday. The court has sent her in judicial remand, he added.
