An alert locomotive pilot, Ramanujam, brought the Nagercoil-bound Bangalore Express to a sudden halt on seeing a woman trying to jump in front of the train to commit suicide near Kovilpatti on the morning of Thursday.
The woman was cuddling a two-year-old girl. She was identified as M. Thangamari (30), wife of labourer Muthukumar of Kovilpatti. The two-year-old girl was her third daughter Mala. She told the police that Muthukumar used to torture her every day in an inebriated condition, the reason why she attempted to commit suicide.
The police sent the woman and her child to ‘Saranalayam,’ a home run by Roman Catholic missionaries at Tirunelveli Junction for orphans and the destitute.