In a shocking incident, a father scarified his newborn girl child to keep his promise to his family deity Kitotarmata. The man, Narottam Mana Devipujak, threw his child in a drain near his house in Sundarpuri, a busy slum area of Gandhidham.
"We have arrested the accused for this heinous crime," said MK Jadeja, police inspector of A-division police station, on Monday. "Narottam Devipujak was produced before the magistrate in Gandhidham court today."
According to the details of the case, the incident took place on Janmashtami night. Narottam, who sells vegetables from a kiosk, had vowed that he would offer a male goat to the goddess if a son was born to him. But if a girl child was born, he had sworn that he would straightway offer the child to the deity.
When his wife gave birth to a baby girl a day before Janmashtami, he decided to give her as an offering to the goddess. When everyone was glued to the TV watching the birth of Lord Krishna, he slipped away with the baby and threw her in a gutter close to the temple of the deity. Then he returned home, pretending as if nothing had happened.
Later, however, he did tell about what he had done to his wife and his in-laws. His neighbours sensed something amiss when they did not see the newborn baby for three consecutive days. On finding out what had happened, they reported the matter to the police. After a thorough search, the police recovered the body of the baby from the drain.
