Cannibal Mom Sent to Mental Asylum in Kolkata

KOLKATA: A day after a woman, a mother-of-five, was allegedly found practising cannibalism, she has been sent to a mental asylum on Friday.

The grisly incident happened in Gopalpur village in Malda district on Thursday, where Pramila Mondal, 42, was caught cutting off the skin from the head of her daughter and eating it by her brother-in-law, who went to her house hearing her four-year-old daughter’s screams. The child, who was bleeding profusely, was rushed to Malda Medical College and Hospital where she is currently in the ICU.

“Pramila’s house is next to ours. When my husband entered her house, he could hear little Bharati’s screams. The girl was seated on the mother’s lap crying as she made mincemeat of her. The scene was shocking beyond words. Her son Swarna was sleeping in the room at that time,” Pramila’s sister-in-law Falguni said.

Pramila’s husband, who had left home looking for job a year ago, has never returned.

When the villagers beat up the woman, who admitted to cannibalism, but couldn’t explain why she did so. Villagers claim that she was a drug addict and alcoholic and might have done the heinous act in an inebriated state.

This is not the first time Pramila has been accused of torturing her children. “Earlier too she had tried to set her elder daughter, eight-year-old Parbati on fire. Since then, the girl has been living with her uncle,” local Gram Panchayat member Soneka Mondal said.

Police rescued her from the irate mob and took her to hospital. Doctors said Pramila was mentally unstable and needed treatment for psychological disorder.  “If needed, the Juvenile Justice Court and Child Welfare Committee may intervene in the matter. I have heard that the family is very poor, but that could not have led to such a behaviour. We are looking into the matter,” Block Development Officer Partha Dey said.

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