Cuttack police, with the help of local fire brigade personnel on Tuesday rescued a pregnant woman, who was lying on the spur of a river barrage here with her hands and legs tied with rubber tubes.
She was immediately rushed to SCB medical college and hospital here in critical condition. The woman in her early 30s, identified as Mina Pradhan of Bhubaneswar, is about 20 weeks into pregnancy and she has received multiple injuries in her body, doctors at SCB medical college and hospital here said.
Police said some morning walkers saw the woman lying on the spur of Mahanadi Barrage with scantily covered and was writhing in pain with her hands and legs tied. She was profusely bleeding with head and hand injuries.
"We are investigating into the matter and action would be taken against the culprits," Cuttack DCP S. Praveen Kumar said.
According to preliminary investigation, the woman, a native of Nayagarh district, was married to the son of a former judicial magistrate five years ago and was staying with her in-laws in Chandrasekharpur area of the capital city. She alleges that her husband and his parents forced her to abort the pregnancy and when she refused, they had planned to eliminate her.
"My in-laws are the key accused behind this atrocity on me and they wanted to kill me so that they could go ahead with the second marriage of their son," the woman told police in her statement from the hospital bed.
She claims that she was taken to a private hospital in Bhubaneswar on Sunday evening for terminating the pregnancy.
"But the doctors refused to do so when I protested," the woman, who has conceived for the first time during her five-years of married life, said.