Kolkata: Parents quarrel, child pays with his life

[ 4 Sep, 2006 0247hrs IST TIMES NEWS NETWORK ]

KOLKATA: Twenty-two-year-old Ramzan Gazi was in the middle of a heated argument with wife Mumtaz. Both were standing on the edge of the platform at Dakshin Barasat station on Sunday evening.

Mumtaz was holding the couple's 18-month old child Mosiul. In a fit of rage, Ramzan pushed his wife. Mumtaz lost her balance and fell on the rail tracks along with her son.

The Down Laxmikantapur local was just pulling into the station. Passengers watched in horror as Mumtaz somehow managed to scramble out, but the child's limbs got crushed under the train.

The severely bleeding boy was rushed to a hospital, where he died within two hours. Agitated locals thrashed the couple mercilessly. Both were seriously injured and are in critical condition at the Padderarhaat hospital in Joynagar.

Mumtaz regained consciousness a few hours later, but is in shock. She was unable to reconstruct the event for police. Husband Ramzan is still unconscious.

Police sources said both Ramzan and his wife worked in a garment factory at Akhra, Santoshpur. The couple lived in Kultali.

On Sunday, they had taken their son, who was suffering from jaundice and high fever, to a doctor near Mumtaz's parents' home in Joynagar.

They were on their way back to Kultali when the tragedy took place. "Soon after the incident, locals assaulted Ramzan and Mumtaz severely. The police had to intervene to take them to hospital," said Barun Mullick, railway police superintendent, Sealdah.

"We are initiating two cases. One against the parents for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and the other against those who assaulted the couple."