Malkangiri: In a heart-wrenching incident reported from Saptadhara village under Mathili police limits in Malkangiri district, a poverty-stricken father who could not bear the grief of selling his four-month-old son died by suicide. The incident occurred Thursday but the tragedy came to the knowledge of the people Friday. The deceased has been identified as Somnath Khila. He has left behind his wife and five children.
For last few months, Somnath had been under severe mental distress as he was not able to meet the family expenses. Poverty forced him to sell his four-month old son to a neighbour a few days back. He thought that it would reduce the financial burden on him. But that did not happen. A sense of guilty encompassed him and it led to him committing suicide.
Somnath’s widow Kuni Khila and her four children now have no one to look after them. She has appealed to the district administration to help them out.
However, questions are being asked as to how the district administration and the Childline organisation were ignorant about the selling of the kid. Many feel that Somnath wouldn’t have taken the drastic step if the district administration had come to his aid.
PNN
