Mysore: Poverty, fear of infamy drives woman to kill infant with brother's help

Daijiworld Media Network – Mysore (SP)

Mysore, Jun 25: The policemen of Mandi station here have arrested a woman and her elder brother for killing a girl baby born to the woman three weeks back. The lady had, after killing the baby, complained to the police that her baby had been kidnapped and killed by unknown abductors.

The culprit has been identified as Sumayya Banu, wife of Fairoz, a resident of Shantinagar 4th cross here. She and her brother face the charge of throwing her baby into a canal with the purpose of ending its life. 

Fairoz, in her complaint dated June 21, had stated that four persons had abducted her and her baby when she was walking on Ashoka Road the previous day. She added that the abductors had taken away her child, while pushing her out of their car on Mysore-Bangalore road. During police interrogation, however, the truth came out.

She now says that the baby had been facing multiple health problems since birth. She confessed that she is too poor to afford the child’s treatment. The child, which was diagnosed with pneumonia since birth, was treated at Mission Hospital and Chitra Nursing Home. Sumayya had got the child, Zoya, discharged from the hospital against the doctor’s advice.

“Moreover, my husband, Fairoz Khan, is entangled in various cases of theft and is required to visit police stations and courts frequently. I was sure that his infamy will cast a negative spell on Zoya’s future. I did not want her to be known as the daughter of a thief,” she said.

On June 20, she went to Ashoka Road in her husband’s auto rickshaw along with elder son. She said she wanted to pledge jewellery items of her mother for raising loan from a pawn shop there for meeting cost of child’s treatment. As her husband and son stayed on in the parked auto rickshaw, Sumayya walked away from her husband’s sight. She then called her elder brother, Imran (27), also an auto driver by profession, to that spot.

“She forced me to take her to the canal, and although I pleaded with her not to do so, she dumped the child in the canal,” Imran said. After committing the crime, Sumayya called her husband on phone and claimed that the baby had been kidnapped.