Kochi: A day after a minor boy from Adimali was rushed to a hospital here with bruises all over his body, the cops on Wednesday booked his parents after he revealed to them the frequent brutal torture at the hands of his mother and father.
Naufal, 9, son of Selena and Nazeer, was brought to the General Hospital on Tuesday evening and later shifted to the Kalamassery Medical College by night.
“Yesterday, the boy refused to tell us the torture probably as his mother was beside him. Today we assured his safety and he told us that his parents used to beat him often with iron rod and coconut besides pouring hot water on him for the slightest provocation. They also used to hit his face against the wall. We’ve lodged a case against his mother Selena as first accused and father Nazeer as the second accused,” a senior officer of the Adimali police said.
The charges slapped were under the provisions of section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act (punishment for cruelty to child).
The family hails from Koombanpara in Adimali. The police were first informed of the boy being subjected to torture by an autorickshaw driver when he came to the house to drop his mother.
However, the boy and the mother kept maintaining that the injuries were caused in a monkey attack a week back. The police asked the mother to take the child to the Kottayam Medical College.
However, she took him to Ernakulam and called her relatives here when she ran out of money. The relatives rushed the boy to the General Hospital seeing his plight and also informed the police.
Dr P. Anil Kumar, superintendent of Kalamassery Medical College, where the boy is undergoing treatment, said the child had a fracture on his leg and serious injuries on his face, hand and also was low on haemoglobin count.
“It will take two to three days more for him to be back to normal though the healing of the injury will take time. However, the injuries are not life-threatening,” he said.
The state government earlier in the day announced it would meet his treatment expenses. Meanwhile, the Child Welfare Committee has planned to provide shelter to his two siblings, one aged eight years and the other a toddler of eight months.
“The boy’s father is a murder- accused and currently in jail in connection with a ganja case. The mother also treats the children very badly. Hence we’ve taken it up with the Idukki counterparts to look into the possibility of sheltering his siblings,” said Padamaja Nair, Ernakulam CWC chairperson.
