In the wee hours of Monday, June 6, a 26-year-old man identified as Sariful Sheikh alias Sher Mohammed chopped off his wife’s right hand in West Bengal to prevent her from taking up a government job. Sariful Sheikh then went on to hide the severed body parts at his residence to make sure that the doctors are unable to reattach it.
The brutal incident took place in Ketugram village in East Burdwan, West Bengal. Sariful Sheikh has been absconding after the incident. Soon after that, his family members too went into hiding.
The victim, Renu Khatun was reportedly sleeping when Sariful Sheikh alias Sher Mohammed, along with his two friends used a machete to chop off her hand. The police said that Renu was rushed to a private hospital in Durgapur after two government hospitals referred her to Kolkata. Her condition is said to be stable, but critical.
Based on a complaint lodged by Renu Khantun’s father, the police have initiated a probe and launched a search operation to nab the accused.
While some media reports suggest that Sariful Sheikh alias Sher Mohammed was unemployed and he took the drastic step out of the fear of abandonment because he was afraid that she would leave him or get posted in a different city. Other reports said that he and his family were opposed to the idea of the house maker going out to work and thus tortured her.
Meanwhile, Dhruba Das, the additional superintendent of police in East Burdwan’s Katwa said, “We have received a complaint from the father of the woman and started a case of attempt to murder. All the accused, including the husband of the woman and his friends, are absconding. Raids are on to arrest them.”
According to the police, Khatun married Sheikh, who owns a grocery store in Kojalsa village in the district’s Ketugram area, in October 2017. Khatun enrolled in a nursing programme in 2018 and was hired in a private nursing home in Durgapur, West Burdwan. She later applied for a government job against Sheikh’s wishes.
Khatun was appointed to the government job on May 28 this year, prompting a fight between the couple.
Finally, on the intervening night of Sunday (June 5) and Monday (June 6), Sheikh resorted to this drastic act. Ripon Sekh, Renu’s elder brother, told the media, “Ever since my sister got the state government’s appointment letter, Sher had been insisting that she rejects it. However, Renu always dreamt of pursuing a nursing career and she refused. We never knew Sher’s insecurity would take such a tragic turn.”