In video, Kolkata woman beats up mother-in-law for plucking flower

Kolkata: In a shocking incident, an elderly woman in Kolkata was mercilessly beaten by her daughter-in-law in South Kolkata's Garia area over a trivial mistake of plucking of flowers without her permission. The entire incident was captured by a neighbour on his cell phone and has been posted on social media.

The video footage shows the accused Swapna Pal repeatedly pulling the hair of her 75-year-old mother-in-law Jashoda Pal. Within a few hours, the video received 5,03,000 views, 8,300 likes and 25,000 shares.

It shows the daughter-in-law screaming at the woman and then beating her repeatedly.

The matter came to light when an official of Bansdroni police station, Sgt Subhra Chakraborty, noticed the video - made by the woman's neighbour - on the social media.

Police swung into action after Subhra Chakraborty brought the incident to the notice of his officer-in-charge.

The person, from whose account the video was uploaded, Rantu Sengupta, however, did not disclose the place of occurrence of the crime, despite being assured by the police to keep his identity safe.

Police got details of Sengupta from his Facebook account and reached his house. After a long counselling, he revealed that he received the video from a doctor in Bholar Bazar area of Canning.

A Facebook post by the Kolkata Police claims the elderly woman, Yashoda Pal, is a patient of amnesia, and was being punished by the daughter-in-law for plucking flowers from the garden "without permission." It further said the mother-in-law was subjected to physical abuse on a daily basis. Her husband had passed away several years ago.

An officer from Bansdroni police station said that Swapna Pal was arrested on Wednesday and then, released on bail.

People on social media condemned the incident with many terming it as "inhumane'' and demanded immediate punishment to the accused.