Penniless father can't cremate kid 20 Jul 2008, 0459 hrs IST, Debamoy Ghosh,TNN

Source:- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata_Poor_father_cant_cremate_kid/articleshow/3254675.cms

KOLKATA: When their day-old son died on Friday, Shyamnagar couple Pabitra and Krishna Adhikary didn't even have the money to cremate him.

Pabitra went from door to door, begging for a few rupees for his son's last rites. But when everyone refused help, Pabitra dumped the body in a bush by the roadside.

Police came looking for him on Saturday morning, but when they heard his tale of woe, they collected money to pay for the cremation.

Pabitra (40) used to work as a railway hawker earlier but has been unemployed for quite some time. His wife Krishna is blind. The couple turned to begging to scrape out a living.

Krishna gave birth to a boy on Thursday. But within hours of birth, the child started having breathing trouble. The parents took the baby to BN Bose Hospital in Barrackpore on Friday morning. After waiting in a long queue, they finally reached the doctor. Checking him, doctors found the baby was dead.

The couple went from door to door asking for help but everyone turned them away. Pabitra finally took Krishna back home and assured her that he would find money for her child's cremation. But even hours later, he had not collected the required amount.

A desperate Pabitra then dumped the body in a bush in front of a workshop at Talpukur in Barrackpore.

On Saturday morning, a few employees of municipality noticed the body and informed police. Cops sent the body for post-mortem and initiated a probe to trace the parents. Locals had seen the couple and directed the police to the Adhikary's slum home in Shyamnagar.

But once police questioned them, they realised what dire straits the couple was in. They then collected money and took the parents with their baby to the burning ghat. "We had detained Pabitra initially, suspecting foul play. When we heard their story, we put together some money for the child's last rites," said Barrackpore ASP Praveen Kumar Tripathy.