Alcoholic father pushes girl to brink of death

Working as a helper in a shop near his house, Lal, neighbours say, has an unsatiable lust for liqour and devours not only his but also his family’s limited income. He often beats up his wife to snatch the money she earns by working as a domestic help. Lal’s habits have ensured that his five children are not properly educated.

The neighbours alleged that Lal again beat up his wife on Thursday night and did not stop despiterequests by Babli. “She tried to intervene but had to bear the brunt of his fury”, they said. Babli, who apparently consumed some poisonous substance, was later found lying unconscious near her house. She was rushed to the Government Medical College Hospital here. Instead of being by the side of his serious daughter, Lal, rued the neighbours, has been threatening the family not to complain against him.

A neighbour said that Lal’s wife had repeatedly approached the police to inform them of the atrocities of her husband, but to no avail. “Apart from approaching the Bakshi Nagar police several times, she even went to the Women Police Station with her five children to tell the story of her woes”, the neighbour said.

“Either shoot me and my children or prevent us from being tortured by my husband,”, Lal’s wife is reported to have told the officials at the women police station at Canal. Nothing, however was done despite the pleadings.

Officials at the Bakshi Nagar police station, when contacted,admitted that the Lal’s family had complained against him at least three times in the past. “We took him into custody but released him after reprimands,” a policeman said. “But this time we would act sternly”, he said.

Telling of Lal’s criminal bent of mind, neighbours alleged that last year he had even tried to set Babli on fire. “The man emptied on her a five-litre container of kerosene in late evening. Babli escaped when he went to kitchen to fetch match-stick,” they said, adding that the girl’s skin was badly affected by kerosene. Because of Lal’s bestiality and love for liquor, family has had, at times, to go without food for days.

Her mother feeding her four younger brothers and sisters at home, the youngest of whom is only one-and-a-half-years old, Babli has no one to take care of her in the hospital. Sympathetic hospital staff, however, are providing her the necessary medicines and food. “Why did you not let me die,” Babli asked the hospital staff, after gaining consciousness in theevening. “What life a girl has whose mother is continuously beaten before her eyes?” murmured the anguished girl.

Shocked at the hands-off approach of police and absence of commitment of the government agencies and NGOs claiming to be working for de-addiction, a neighbour wondered what would become of the small sisters and brothers of Babli who are not getting adequate food, not to speak of education. “And would police come into picture only after something serious happens?”, she asked.