Police Allow Baby To Die In Police Station

Published on November 30, 2006 By MasonM In Current Events

It seems that the police in India are heartless bastards.

Link

HOWRAH: In the wee hours of Wednesday, a newborn died of hunger and cold in a police station in Howrah as cops turned a deaf ear to the wails and continued to grill the hapless mother.

The mother was picked up the previous evening for bearing a child out of wedlock. Twenty-one-year-old Soma Giri, a resident of Palpara in Jagachha, Howrah, is in shock.

She is also mentally challenged. Her mother Malati, who accompanied Soma and the four-day-old girl to the police station, repeatedly pleaded the cops to let Soma off for the night. But in vain.

"The baby needed to be nursed. As the temperature dipped, she shivered violently. There were no warm clothes. We promised to return in the morning but the police just wouldn't listen. Sometime close to dawn, the baby slipped into a deep sleep. It was only later that we realised it was death," she said.

The incident has shocked civil society and evoked strong reaction from human rights activists and a former police chief. Tushar Talukdar, former Kolkata police commissioner, has called for prompt and exemplary action against the policemen who acted in such an inhuman manner.

"I haven't come across such an incident in my entire career. The physical condition of a woman who has given birth to a baby four days ago, is extremely vulnerable. The officers could have interrogated her at her residence. In any case, there was no emergency. It (interrogation) could have waited. Such callousness and indifference to a newborn baby is an unpardonable offence," Talukdar said.

State Human Rights Commission chairman Shyamal Sen termed the incident unprecedented. "What was the need for interrogation at night? Police are there to protect people. This kind of inhuman act is not expected of those in the force. This is extremely unfortunate."

On Wednesday morning, Soma's neighbours trooped into the police station to find the distraught mother with the motionless baby on her lap.

Comments

foreverserenity

on Dec 01, 2006

This is such a disgusting thing to have happen! It makes me see red at how uncaring they were to let this happen! So sad, really sad.

Dr Guy

on Dec 01, 2006

I dont know much about India, but it makes you wonder how much they really value life. At least in that city.

cactoblasta

on Dec 01, 2006

Third world police are pretty ordinary world-wide. They just don't get the training that first world ones get. Still, there's no excuse for what they did to that poor girl and her baby. Hopefully something will happen so it doesn't occur again.

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