Man kills 48-yr-old physically challenged son after he refuses to wear face mask

A 78-year-old man killed his 45-year-old physically challenged son during a quarrel that broke out over the son not wearing a facial mask while going out of the house during lockdown in north Kolkata on Saturday evening.

The man then went to the local police station and surrendered. Police have arrested the accused and initiated a murder case against him.

“It was around 7 pm that the accused Banshidhar Mallick came to the Shyampukur police station and said that he has killed his son Sirshendu Mallick around 5:30 pm. The son was physically challenged. The accused had strangulated the victim with a piece of cloth,” said a Kolkata Police top officer.

Officers from the local police station rushed to the spot and the Kolkata Police’s homicide squad was also informed.

According to investigating officers, the accused didn’t share a cordial relation with his son. They used to quarrel almost regularly. While the man is a retired employee of a private firm, his son was unemployed. He was suffering from physical disabilities since childhood.

“Over the past few days, the man and his son were having fights regularly because every time the son went out of the house, his father insisted that he should wear a mask and the son refused. On Saturday, a heated altercation broke out for the same reason and the man killed his son in a fit of rage. He strangulated his son with a cloth,” said an officer of the local police station on the condition of anonymity.

On March 12, the West Bengal government had made it mandatory for all citizens to wear masks especially in public places.

Some areas in north and central Kolkata have been declared as Red Zones after multiple people were found to be infected with Covid-19 disease from those areas.

“We have initiated a murder case. Further investigation is on,” said a top official of Kolkata Police.