Fearing cancer, woman kills self after drowning daughter

KOLKATA: A 41-year-old woman allegedly killed her five-year-old daughter before ending her own life at Ichhapore in North 24-Parganas on Thursday. Homemaker, Laxmisree Chakraborty (in left pic) feared she had cancer after being diagnosed with mastitis — painful swelling of the breast due to infection.
The wife of senior railway official Subir Chakraborty, Laxmisree allegedly threw her daughter Diya into a pond after tying a pitcher around her neck.Later, she jumped in front of a train.
Laxmisree used to stay at her parental home in Ichhapore’s Nababganj with her daughter Diya. Subir is posted at Andal. According to her family members, she had been diagnosed with mastitis in 2013. “She was undergoing treatment. But she believed she had breast cancer. She got depressed as she had been suffering for a long time. The doctors repeatedly told her she did not have cancer, but she wouldn’t believe them. We also tried our best to convince her she would be cured. We never imagined she could take such a drastic step,” said Laxmisree’s brother Shyamaprasad Chakraborty.
On Thursday morning, Diya went missing. “When the mother was being questioned about Diya’s whereabouts, she kept silent. While others were desperately looking for Diya, Laxmisree was reluctant to find her. Later, the girl’s body was fished out from a pond near our house,” a family member said.
After Diya’s body was recovered, her mother went missing. In the afternoon, her dismembered body was found beside the railway track near Ichhapore railway station. According to railway sources, she jumped in front of a Sealdah-bound local train.