Mumbai: Man kills unborn foetus based on Chinese calendar

Shayyed Ali even sent a divorce notice to his wife, who has said this was because she had failed to conceive a male child

While the prime minister's Beti bachao… campaign continues to be actively promoted across the country, a 25-year-old man from Govandi allegedly fed his pregnant wife abortion pills, which killed the foetus, believing it was a girl child. Interestingly, he had deduced this from calculations on a Chinese calendar, the woman has said. As if that was not enough, he later sent a divorce notice to his wife.

Shayyed Ali

She has said this was because she had failed to conceive a male child. The woman has now filed a case against her husband, and the police have said they would be arresting him soon.

The sonography report of the foetus

On Sunday, the Deonar police station received the medical report of Mehjbeen Khan (24) from Mathari Hospital. The police said based on this they would be arresting the woman's husband, Shayyed Ali, this week.

Also read: Pregnant woman's in-laws attempt to torch her after astrologer predicts girl child

"We are investigating the matter. We have received the medical report and will be arresting the man soon," said inspector PS Shinde of Deonar police station, who is investigating the case.

‘Fed abortion pills in food'
Mehjbeen, who works as a laboratory technician at Bhabha Hospital, has alleged that she was given powdered abortion pills in her food, without her knowledge, which led to the death of her foetus.

In June, Mehjbeen was two months pregnant when she got a sonography done. "I was really happy to see my child for the first time in the sonography image. But, I was shocked when immediately after that my husband started telling me to get the foetus aborted, saying it was a girl," she said.

Mehjbeen said, after seeing the foetal heart, Shayyed for some reason presumed the foetus was a girl. Then, allegedly, as advised by his mother, Shayyed started calculating the date on the Chinese calendar. "His mother told him that the Chinese calendar would help him find out if it was a girl or a boy. So, he started calculating the date I had conceived and my delivery time according to the calendar. His calculations showed it was a girl, so his family and he started pressurising me into getting an abortion," she said.

‘Threats to abort'
When she refused to abort the child, his family started threatening her. "But, suddenly one day my husband started becoming very caring and started bringing me a glass of milk every morning. One day, he started mixing a power in my milk, and told me it was Complan. But, every time, I drank it, my stomach would ache. On June 23, he gave me the same drink at 6am and within two hours, I was vomiting and bleeding. I was bleeding so profusely that I couldn't even stand. I was taken to the hospital where parts of the foetus were removed," she said.

But, within a month of the miscarriage, her husband sent her divorce papers. Mehjbeen claimed the primary reason for the divorce was that she couldn't conceive a male child.

‘Tortured for money'
"I am a BCom graduate and earn more than my husband, who has only studied up to Std 12. After marriage, they started torturing me for money. When they got to know about my pregnancy, they started warning me that it should be a boy as there were already many girl children in the family," she said.

The police have applied section 498 (a), Husband or relative of husband of a woman subjecting her to cruelty 406, criminal breach of trust 313, Causing miscarriage without woman's consent, 504, Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace, 323 voluntarily causing hurt and 34, when a criminal act is done by several persons.