A seven months’ pregnant woman died in in Ludhiana’s Jandi Kalan village after her husband and brother-in-law allegedly tied her hands and kept pressing the stomach till the foetus, suspected to be female, came out, police said. Mother of a two-year-old daughter, Manjit Kaur (32) had reportedly refused to abort her second girl child, despite pressure from her husband.

On Sunday night, her husband, Irvinder Singh, along with his brother, Manvinder Singh, allegedly tried to abort the foetus by force. After Manjit died on the spot, her body and the foetus were dumped in the fields near family’s home and covered it with a quilt and soil.

“Her husband and brother-in-law tried to forcibly abort the foetus. They tied her hands and kept pressing the stomach till the foetus came out and she died. We have recovered the body and foetus from the fields,” claimed Paramjit Singh, SHO Sidhwan Bet police station. He added that the victim’s mother-in-law is bed-ridden.

Ravinder Singh, father of the victim, told police that it was on Monday morning that someone from the village told him about hearing Manjit’s cries in the night. When they reached there, the accused had already cleaned blood stains from the room, he added. They, however, failed to give any explanation about whereabouts of Manjit, said the father.

He told police that even when the couple had their first daughter, Manjit was physically and mentally tortured. After she conceived for the second time, her husband forced her to get a sex determination test done and kept telling her to go for an abortion, said the father.

According to Ravinder, her daughter was warned of dire consequences if she failed to give birth to a male child.

Meanwhile, an FIR against both accused has been registered under Sections 302 (murder), 313 (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent), 314 (death caused by act done with intent to cause miscarriage) and 315 (act done with intent to prevent child being born alive or to cause it to die after birth) of IPC based on the complaint filed by the victim’s father.

The SHO said it was also being probed if any doctor or midwife was called.

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