Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala police on Friday arrested the mother of a seven-year-old boy who was allegedly battered to death by her live-in partner, Arun Anand, in March.
Anand is currently in jail, and the deceased boy’s mother was arrested following directions for the same by the Child Welfare Committee of Idukki district.
The incident had taken place in Kumaramangalam near Thodupuzha, some 50km from Kochi. Anand had been living in with the boy’s mother since the demise of the boy’s father last year.
The boy was allegedly kicked, beaten and thrashed to death and when admitted at the Kolencherry Medical College, there were cracks on his skull, broken ribs and other injuries all over the body. After a few days in the hospital, during which he hardly responded to treatment, the child died.
Anand reportedly flew into a fury on the night of the assault when he saw that the boy’s younger brother aged four had urinated in bed. Blaming the elder boy for not having ensured that his younger brother had urinated before going to bed, Anand assaulted him, leading to grievous injuries.
The boy’s mother who was arrested on Friday, has been charged for covering up the crime and for protecting the accused.
This week, a report attributed to the Kerala State Council for Child Welfare put the number of cases of child abuse in the state over the last two years at over 24,500, of which over 13,000 cases of abuse happened at homes.
The data was got from KSCCW’s project titled ‘Thanal’ (shade) through its helpline. Drugs, intoxicants and misuse of cyber technologies have been pointed out as some of the key triggers leading to child abuse.
After the seven-year-old boy’s murder in Thodupuzha, a three-year-old boy was allegedly beaten to death in Aluva in the outskirts of Kochi. His mother was identified as a labourer from Jharkhand, and his father a crane operator from West Bengal.