KOCHI: A three-year old boy, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital here for serious head injuries after he was allegedly battered by his mother, died on Friday morning.
This is the second such incident in the state this month after a seven-year-old boy died due to injuries sustained in the assault by his mother’s friend at Thodupuzha.
According to hospital sources, the child was in critical condition and unresponsive to treatment after a three-hour-long neurosurgery. He was on ventilator support and was administered anti-edema measures and given supportive treatment in the ICU till his death was confirmed at 9.05 am on Friday.
The post-mortem was held at the Government Medical College Hospital, where it will be kept for three days, the police said.
The Eloor police had arrested the child’s mother, who hails from Jharkhand, on Thursday after she reportedly confessed to physically torturing the child. Following this, she was slapped with charges, including attempted murder, under Section 307 of the IPC.
However, she claimed that the child had fallen from an 8-feet-high concrete slab and become unconscious immediately, which the police found untrue.
Meanwhile, the man claiming to be her husband, who hails from Kolkata, remains under police surveillance. According to police sources, a decision on arraigning him as accused will be taken after further investigation. It is learnt that he had been working in a private crane services company here for the last one year while the mother had come to Kochi only 20 days back.
Special police teams have been sent to Jharkhand and West Bengal to verify the accused's statement that they were married four years ago. “We are yet to find out whether they are husband and wife or that the man is the biological father of the deceased child. A detailed investigation is being carried out in the two states,” a source said.
