Kozhikode: The Kerala police on Saturday arrested the father of a newborn, for denying the baby breast milk for 24 hours, after registering a case under juvenile justice act against him.
The 24-year-old mother from Omassery in Kerala’s Kozhikode district had defied the doctor’s requests to breastfeed her new born baby, after her husband forbid her to do so citing religious reasons.
According to reports, Hafsath, who delivered her second child at EMS Co-operative Hospital, Kozhikode, feared that her husband would divorce her if she refused to follow her order.
Hafsath’s husband Aboobacker claimed that he lived by the principles of Koya Thangal, a Muslim religious leader, who had advised that a baby should not be fed until five prayers were called after its birth. The police also arrested the cleric for his advice to the parents.
Aboobacker even went on to claim that, in a similar way, he had prevented his wife from his breastfeeding his first child, and that nothing had happened.
“I had not allowed my wife to breastfeed our first child also for 24 hours. That hospital made me give an undertaking that I would be responsible if my child died. Nothing happened to my child. The preacher had told us to give the infant honey and some water from Mecca,” he was quoted as saying.
The hospital authorities, pleaded, coaxed and threatened him, but to no avail, eventually forcing them to approach the police.
The police officer said that Aboobacker stood by his ground, and prevented the mother from breastfeeding the child, and added that the preacher had told him about ‘a cord from the belly button of the child that will provide nutrition to the baby’.
The family eventually left the hospital after Aboobacker forcefully sought discharge.
The hospital authorities decided to file a complaint against Aboobacker for preventing them from discharging their duties, and also for endangering the child’s life.
