A homemaker from a village in Chanchal police station drowned her two minor daughters at a pond on Sunday morning, sending ripples of shock in the area.

Police called it an “unprecedented act” while a psychiatrist in Malda town said the mother must have “complicated mental issues”.

Anupnagar villagers said the woman, Mumpi Mondal, took her daughters Madhuri, 10, and Jayashree, 8, to a pond and shoved them deliberately.

Chanchal, her husband and a daily wage earner, and other villagers rushed to the spot. The girls were taken out of the pond but doctors at a local hospital pronounced them dead.

Chanchal said that late on Saturday, he had a fight with Mumpi over serving of food.

“However, we eventually went to bed and I had no inkling that she would do something so drastic to avenge the quarrel,” said the bereaved man.

Sukumar Ghosh, the inspector-in-charge of Chanchal police station, said it was “one of the rarest incidents” he had seen in his career as a cop.

“We have heard of incidents when a mother, after killing her children, tries to take her own life. But in this case, the information we have is that she did not try to take any such step and stood on the spot. I suspect she some complicated mental issues,” said Parnasha Gupta Roy, a psychiatrist in Malda.

Accident deaths

Two persons died in a road accident at Malda Bypass on the outskirts of Malda town on Sunday afternoon.

Deceased Mozahar Ali, 30, and Rumpi Deb Sharma, 19, both residents of Kaliyaganj police station area, North Dinajpur district, were among the occupants of an SUV that collided with a dump truck on the bypass. The three injured are being treated at Malda Medical College and Hospital.