Abandoned by their parents without any food or care, two sisters, aged seven and three, were found in extremely poor health, with maggots in their hair in Outer Delhi’s Samaypur Badli.
The girls lived with their parents, Bunty Gupta and Rosy, and their brother in a one-room tenement in Nepali Colony of Samaypur Badli. Bunty works as a peon at a local firm and Rosy was employed at a garments store until some months ago.
The girls’ mother had abandoned the family around three months ago, taking her two-year-old son with her. Till August 15, the sisters’ alcoholic father used to visit his house everyday but did not provide for food or any care for the two girls — Himanshi and Dipali. However after August 15, his visits stopped.
Violent quarrelsNeighbours alleged that the couple had frequent and violent quarrels as Gupta suspected his wife’s fidelity. “Fed up of her husband, Rosy left with her son around three months ago. Bunty would arrive at home drunk at nights only to sleep.The girls were neglected all this while,” said Sanjay Kumar, the landowner.
Lack of food and sanitation resulted in the girls contracting skin diseases, including maggot infestation. Neighbours, who had initially ignored the victims, called the police after the stench from the room became unbearable.
The police took the children to the Ambedkar hospital in Rohini in a critical condition where they were provided emergency care. The police also deployed personnel to be with the children through the day. They are likely to remain in hospital for the next 10 days.
The parents have been charged with abandoning their children and under the Juvenile Justice Act, but no arrests have been made even a week after the case came to the police’s attention.
