BHUBANESWAR: A man in Odisha’s coastal district of Balasore has been taken into custody after his family accused him of trying to kill his newborn, police said on Monday.
The Balasore police said Chandan Mahana was accused by his family of administering an injection to his daughter when his wife Tanmay (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Balasore superintendent of police (SP) Sagarika Nath said the infant is being treated at the Balasore district hospital and is still critical. “We have detained her father (Chandan Mahana) for questioning,” she said.
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Police said Chandan Mahana was accused by his family of injecting a poisonous substance to his daughter when his wife Tanmayi was taking a bath minutes before a ceremony to name the newborn.
“The infant was supposed to be named today and we were very happy,” Tanmayi’s father Bhagirathi Singh.
“But when my daughter was away from the baby, my son-in-law injected the baby with a greenish liquid following which she started crying. When we rushed in and sensed something amiss, he threw the syringe away. However, we could recover the poison,” Bhagirathi Singh added.
Singh said his son-in-law was not happy that a daughter was born. “Though he did not admit it initially, he confessed to having administered poison with the help of a syringe as he did not want the girl child,” he alleged.
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In another instance, Muna Munda, a tribal man in Keonjhar district’s Shankarpur village, tried to sell his four-month-old daughter to raise money to treat his ailing wife. Rajashri Upadhyay, a member of the Keonjhar district child welfare committee, said he was stopped by the committee. “When we got the information, we rushed to the village and managed to stop Munda. We have promised to help him raise funds for the treatment of his wife,” she said.
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In another instance, Muna Munda, a tribal man in Keonjhar district’s Shankarpur village, tried to sell his four-month-old daughter to raise money to treat his ailing wife. Rajashri Upadhyay, a member of the Keonjhar district child welfare committee, said he was stopped by the committee. “When we got the information, we rushed to the village and managed to stop Munda. We have promised to help him raise funds for the treatment of his wife,” she said.
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.
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