A 25-day-old girl child was murdered by her mother, who threw her in a well at Sukantanagar, a locality in Siliguri on Tuesday.

As the news spread, firemen from the Siliguri fire station rushed to the spot and fished out the body. Also, a team from the Ashighar police outpost under Bhaktinagar police station went to the area and arrested the woman.

Sources said Astami Goswami, a homemaker in her 20s, threw her newborn daughter in the well on Tuesday morning. As some neighbours learned about it, they informed Dulal Dutta, the Trinamool councilor of ward 38 of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC).

Dutta informed the police, who arrested Astami.

Some residents told us that the woman was mentally unstable. We are waiting for the police to find out what prompted her to take such a drastic step,” said Dutta.

He added that Astami and her husband Nayan Goswami stayed in a rented home. "When some locals informed me, I immediately called up the police. The firemen reached the spot, pumped out water from the well and found the newborn's body," he said.