A baba had predicted that the child she was carrying would be a girl. Led by a blind belief in this prediction, the six-month pregnant woman’s husband allegedly beat her on the stomach with an iron rod till she miscarried. The tragic incident took place a few days back at Balajipet in Tenali town of Andhra Pradesh.
The victim, Munnisa, 30, is now battling for her life in a private hospital. The child was indeed a girl. It came to light that her husband, Allabakshu, father-in-law Baburao, mother-in-law Thaharennisa, had beaten the woman with an iron rod and bucket, under the belief that the next time around, she would deliver a male child.
The neighbours who saw the incident and noticed blood oozing from her thighs, informed her parents and admitted her to the government hospital. After preliminary treatment, she was shifted to a private hospital where she is battling for life after developing an infection in the womb.
Based on the complaint filed by the victim, the police arrested her husband, his mother and father and filed cases against them after the incident came to light on Sunday night.
Reportedly unable to bear the harassment of her husband and in-laws, she sent one of her daughters to her parents’ house in Mangalagiri town recently.
Earlier, when the woman gave birth to a third daughter, her husband approached a baba near Vijayawada who predicted that she would produce a male child in her seventh pregnancy. So she was forced to abort her fourth and fifth pregnancies.
The sixth time around, the cops swooped down and arrested them. The Tenali DSP Y.T.R. Prasad produced the husband and his parents in court and they have been remanded.
Meanwhile, the Speaker N. Manohar visited the place and consoled the victim, who was being treated at a private hospital in Tenali on Monday.
MLC Nannapuneni Rajakumari, BJP Mahila Morcha national leader Yadlapati Swarupa Rani, also visited her and demanded stern action against the accused. They also demanded that her husband bear all the medical expenses for her treatment.