Po­lice yes­ter­day re­leased a 20-year-old Bar­rack­pore woman who was ar­rest­ed over the week­end for sev­er­ing the hand of a 61-year-old rel­a­tive. He re­port­ed­ly bat­tered Kam­la Lal with a chair last Fri­day, when the woman in­ter­vened.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said in­quiries were still on­go­ing but de­cid­ed to re­lease the woman from the Gas­par­il­lo Po­lice Sta­tion around 5.45 pm based on the in­for­ma­tion they col­lect­ed so far.

Mean­while, at­tor­neys are said to be lin­ing up to rep­re­sent the woman.

As Guardian Me­dia spoke to Lal’s daugh­ter, Sasha, out­side her home in Bar­rack­pore yes­ter­day, a Princes Town at­tor­ney con­tact­ed her, of­fer­ing her ser­vices and ad­vis­ing that the of­fice had al­ready made en­quiries on the sus­pect’s be­half.

Over the week­end, she said an as­sis­tant of a promi­nent at­tor­ney called the fam­i­ly and her sis­ter spoke to a le­gal aid lawyer. 

Sasha said Lal was still be­ing treat­ed at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal af­ter a doc­tor su­tured a large wound on her head that she suf­fered dur­ing the vi­o­lent al­ter­ca­tion on Fri­day. The male rel­a­tive is in sta­ble con­di­tion at the hos­pi­tal.

“So far, we know that they came and spoke to her, but she has not cho­sen one yet, so we are un­sure about the pro­ce­dure,” Sasha said.

She added that the 20-year-old sus­pect had been en­dur­ing a fright­en­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

Sasha said they were try­ing to be strong for them­selves and the sus­pect, know­ing she had a lot of love and was on­ly de­fend­ing Lal.

She called on the po­lice to con­sid­er that it was the sus­pect’s first ar­rest and she had nev­er been in trou­ble with the law be­fore.

She said the sus­pect did not in­tend to sev­er the man’s hand.

“Due to what was go­ing on over the years, I think that when she saw the blood on Mom’s head, it got her more fright­ened. I think that caused her to lash out in that man­ner, but (name called), oth­er­wise, is not a vi­o­lent child. She is not a per­son like that to do such things, and I do not think this was some­thing that she planned. It was due to the ac­tions that were tak­ing place,” Sasha said.

In an in­ter­view on Sat­ur­day, Lal said the male rel­a­tive came to the premis­es drunk and told her and a fe­male rel­a­tive to have a drink. When the rel­a­tive left, the man start­ed to quar­rel with Lal and al­leged­ly took up an iron chair and be­gan hit­ting her about her back and head. She told re­porters that the sus­pect heard her cries for help and came to res­cue her, as they all feared that the male rel­a­tive might have killed her.