According to police, the family was starving as work had stopped at brick kilns since the lockdown was imposed and they had no other source of income
This picture has been used for representational purposes
A 30-year-old tribal woman from Jawhar taluka in Palghar strangulated her three-year-old daughter to death and then committed suicide on the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday. The deceased woman has been identified as Mangala Wagh and her daughter's name was Roshni.
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According to the police, Mangala’s husband Dileep is a labourer and used to work at brick kilns. "The family was starving as work had stopped at brick kilns since the lockdown was imposed and they had no other source of income," a police officer said.
"Mangala was depressed due to poverty and did not receive any help. So, she decided to end her life and kill her child too," said tribal leader Vivek Pandit, who is also the chairman of a government-appointed committee that keeps a tab on implementation of schemes meant for the tribals in the state.
"The woman took her daughter to the jungle near her house in Borichamal and strangulated her to death with a sari. After killing the toddler, she hanged herself from a tree with the same sari," Pandit added.
On Wednesday morning, the villagers found the woman’s body hanging from the tree and alerted the police who also found the child's body. Both the bodies were sent for postmortem to the local government hospital. Based on Dileep’s complaint, the police have registered a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against Mangala.
Pandit said, “I have been urging the government to attend to the needs of the tribals or else they will die of starvation during the pandemic.”
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