It was a sad end to four days of anxious waiting when Bengalureans had prayed for baby Neha Afreen’s recovery while she was in hospital being treated for injuries inflicted on her by her own father, Umar Farooq. On Wednesday the city could not have been more despondent as news of the two-month-old baby’s death spread in the Vani Vilas Hospital, through its homes and on Modi Road in D.J. Halli, where her maternal grandfather lives.
A distraught Reshma burst into tears on being told about her baby dying by doctors and her mother, sisters, brothers and cousins rushed in to console her. While one of Reshma’s sisters fainted on hearing the news, there was hardly a dry eye anywhere. Reshma, who had pleaded with her brothers and sisters to take her into the mortuary so she could have a glimpse of her baby, was finally allowed in after a wait of nearly three hours outside. With the postmortem completed, Afreen’s body was taken to her maternal grandfather’s house on Modi Road, where crowds had gathered to receive it.
Relatives, neighbours, the elderly and children all assembled at the house to see the child who had battled for days in the hospital's ICU to live, but found it hard to beat the severe injuries she had suffered from the beatings her father allegedly gave her on more than one occasion, only because she was a girl and he had wanted a boy for a child. Members of the Karnataka State Wakf Foundation for Women Development and the Child Welfare Commission also visited Reshma’s house to share her grief and promise their support.
As the city mourned and wailing relatives and her mother said their final goodbyes to her, Afreen’s body was taken to the burial ground at Tannery Road and laid to rest around 5.45 pm.