Man tries to hang daughter for going to school, arrested

A daily wage labourer in West Bengal’s Alipurduar district has been arrested for trying to kill his 11-year-old daughter for disobeying his orders to skip school, officials said on Wednesday.

Dilip Munda from Panchkelguri village more than 680km away from Kolkata, tried to hang his daughrer, Kamalika, from a tree on February 6. She was rescued by her uncle, who was close by. Munda was on the run since the incident and was arrested on Monday.

“Dilip has been arrested based on the complaint filed by his neighbours,” Pradip Sarkar, the inspector-in-charge of Alipurduar police station, said.

The incident became public on February 7 when Kamalika was pulled up in Kadamtala Junior High School, where she is a Class 5 student, for missing classes.

“Kamalika joined the school in January. She was not coming to school for more than a week before she narrated her harrowing story before us,” teacher-incharge Rakesh Dey said.

Dey lodged a complaint with Norbu Chewang Bhutia, the block development officer of Alipurduar 1. Bhutia, in turn, informed the district magistrate following which the police and child welfare committee (CWC) swung into action.

Kamalika and her younger sister, Shyamalika, live with their father and stepmother Jambi, while their eldest sister, Aparna, a Class 8 student, lives with her grandparents.

A team of officers from the local administration and the police went to the village and investigated the matter. Kamalika and Shyamalika’s statements were recorded by the officials and they were rescued.

The girl told the investigators that her father and stepmother tortured her and forced her to do household work instead of letting her go to school. She alleged she was not given enough food and that she survived on the mid-day meals in school.

“Though the administration was planning to send the children to a welfare home either in Jalpaiguri or Cooch Behar, the children wanted to go to their grandparents’ home about two km away,” Alipurduar district chairperson of child welfare committee Kanti Bhusan Mohanta said.

Bhutia said Kamalika and Shyamalika would be given a monthly scholarship of Rs 2,000 each and 12kg ration each.

An NGO working on human rights, however, alleged that the authorities delayed taking action. “The children were rescued more than 24 hours after the incident was brought to the notice of the administration. Anything could have happened to the child during the period,” Ratul Biswas, spokesperson of Manabik Mukh, said.

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