KOLKATA: The West Bengal police are saying that a woman who killed her 28-days-old twin daughters did so because she was being harassed for giving birth to female children. However, the woman’s husband said there was no harassment.
The incident took place on Thursday, February 9, in Alisagar in West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district. The woman, Gouri Giri, is the wife of a daily wage worker, Prashant.
On Thursday afternoon, when her husband and her mother-in-law Bijli Rani, also a daily wager, went out to work, Gouri Giri allegedly laid out the twins, named Ambika and Anwesha, in the hot sun and covered them with a thick blanket. The 28-day-old twins were suffocated to death.
The infants’ bodies have been sent for an autopsy to determine the exact cause of death, a police officer from the Debra police station said.
Gouri Giri has been booked under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sent to three days in police custody.
Police say they have found that Gouri Giri was being harassed by her in-laws for giving birth to twin girls. Gouri and Prashant have a son, Abhi, five years old.
They planned a second child and her husband’s family are said to have wanted another son. The police officer said the family was worried that they wouldn’t be able to afford two more daughters.
Prashant, who registered a case against Gouri at the Debra police station, said, "I never thought she would do this. She seemed to love our daughters."