The two-year-old son and the four-year-old daughter of the woman. Picture by Gopal Senapati

A boatman plucked to safety a toddler dropped into the Hooghly by his “depressed” mother who reached the riverfront using two gold bangles as “taxi fare”.

Passengers of the boat prevented 25-year-old Rimpa Banerjee from jumping into the river with her four-year-old daughter.

Rimpa left her VIP Tagore Park home in Baguiati on Monday morning with daughter Sneha, son Sujit, 2, and Rs 50.

The woman boarded a taxi and pleaded with the driver to take her to Dakshineswar. “I do not have enough money but I have these two gold bangles,” she told the cabbie, taking them off and handing them over.

Soon after she got to Dakshineswar, Rimpa and her children boarded a mechanised boat headed for Belur Math.

Around 12.30pm, just when the boat was touching the Belur jetty, she dropped her son into the river. She was ready to plunge in with her daughter when other passengers managed to stop her.

Sanath Boal, the boatman, did not waste a second. He dived in after the baby boy, rescued him and swam to safety.

Police were alerted and they first took the trio to TL Jaiswal Hospital in Bally, where Sujit was declared fit. The mother and children were then taken to Bally police station where she was interrogated.

Rimpa at first told the police that her husband Haradhan Banerjee, who works with a bag manufacturing company, was torturing her under the instigation of their landlord Mahim Roy.

She later changed her statement and blamed the landlord of “mental torture”.

Husband Haradhan denied allegations of torture. “I am shocked. I have never tortured her. She has been suffering from acute anaemia and some gynaecological problems. She had slipped into depression after shifting to the city from our village in Purulia last year. We came here to try and give our children a decent education,” he said.

The landlord could not be contacted but Haradhan said there had been “some problems regarding small things like consumption of water and electricity” between Rimpa and Roy.

An officer of Bally police station said: “Rimpa Banerjee has not been arrested as no complaint was lodged against her. We have handed over the case to the North Port police station.”