UPDATE: The UP Police has clarified that the woman did not throw her children into the river because she could not find food during the ongoing lockdown.

In a shocking incident on Sunday, with no food during coronavirus lockdown, a woman allegedly threw her five children into the Ganga river in Jeghangirabad in Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi district.

As soon as the police were informed, senior police officials reached the spot and divers were pressed into service to locate the children.

The woman has been arrested and police officials said that she seemed mentally unsound.

Mother sitting in the center/Amar Ujala

New agency, IANS quoting unnamed sources, reported that the woman had earlier said that she and her children were not getting food in the lockdown and money inflow had stopped because she was a daily wage earner.

"Our priority is to rescue the children as soon as possible, We will carry out other investigations later," said a police official.

A woman threw her five children into the #Ganga river in Jeghangirabad in #UttarPradesh's Bhadohi district.



The woman has been arrested and police officials said that she seemed mentally unsound. pic.twitter.com/303aIojJod — IANS Tweets (@ians_india) April 12, 2020

However, according to PTI, the district magistrate denied reports that the woman threw the children into the river because she could not find food during the ongoing lockdown. “The woman and her family members have not mentioned any such thing,” District Magistrate Rajendra Prasad said.

PTI, quoting Superintendent of Police Ram Badan Singh reported that the woman, Manju Yadav and her husband Mridul Yadav often quarrelled in the past one year. “Hence, she thought of killing her children by throwing them into the river," he said.

India's migrant daily wage workers are among the worst-hit due to the ongoing lockdown to contain the coronavirus pandemic in the country.



As many as 92.5% of labourers have already lost one to three weeks of work, according to a rapid assessment survey by Jan Sahas, a civil society organisation that focuses on human rights of socially excluded communities.





The loss of income is proving to be catastrophic on numerous fronts, and this incident is probably one of the most heartbreaking ones to have surfaced.