Bengaluru/New Delhi She has a severe head injury, bite marks all over her body and is on life support in a Bengaluru hospital. The shocking case of three-month-old Afreen — allegedly battered by her own father as he wanted a male child — came to light Monday.
Afreen, who was allegedly tortured on Thursday, has suffered brain haemorrhage, doctors attending to her at the government-run Vani Vilas Hospital in Bengaluru told reporters.
The baby's father Umar Farook, 25, was arrested late on Sunday on a complaint from his 19-year-old wife Reshma Bhanu, police said.
This is perhaps the first such case reported in recent years in Bengaluru . But in a country with a lopsided sex ratio of 914 females per 1,000 males — as per the provisional data of the 2011 Census — it added another shameful chapter to the history of abandoned, battered and unwanted girl children.
Baby Falak case
The case comes close on the heels of battered baby Falak, who died late last month at the reputed All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi after battling for life for nearly two months.
Police said Afreen's mother Reshma told them that Farook, who works in a shop in the busy Shivajinagar area of Bengaluru's central business district, had been frequently torturing the baby to kill her as he wanted a son.
Police said besides severe head injury, leading to haemorrhage, there were bite marks on several parts of the baby's body. The baby is on ventilator and doctors said only after 48 hours of observation could they comment on her chances of recovery.
Farook, however, told a TV channel that he has not tortured the baby. Asked why then his wife was asserting that he had done so, he said in Hindi, "I don't know."
Reshma and Farook were married in December 2010, police said.
The incident came to light after doctors at the Vani Vilas Hospital informed the state Child Welfare Committee about the admission of a tortured baby. The committee in turn alerted police.
