[Trigger warning: Description of violence]
A 22-year-old woman has been arrested by the Tamil Nadu police after videos emerged of her brutally thrashing and torturing her child. A team of police from Tamil Nadu reached Andhra Pradesh to arrest 22-year-old Thulasi from her mother’s home in Chittoor district after a complaint was filed by her estranged husband, 37-year-old Vadivazhagan. The disturbing incident came to light after many videos of her assault went viral on social media.
Thulasi had recorded horrific videos of herself — allegedly around 250 in number — beating and thrashing her 18-month-old child, which later went viral on social media. One video shows her repeatedly hitting the child’s face, even as the child wails in pain, and continues to hit the child on the mouth till the child starts bleeding. She pauses only to check her own hand, aching from all the beating, and later to hold up the crying child in front of the camera to show the blood on the toddler’s face. In another video, she holds up the child in front of the camera to show whip-like marks on the child’s back, evidently caused due to constant thrashing. In another video, the woman holds up a slipper while the child cowers in the corner, crying in pain. In one video, she grabs the child’s leg, hitting continuously. She then zooms into the child’s toe, and shows the injuries on them. What is more bone-chilling about the videos is that they seem to have been taken particularly to document her assaulting the child, as in many videos, she looks directly into the camera before showing the child.
The abuse came to light following a complaint filed by Thulasi's estranged husband, Vadivazhagan, aged 37 years. The couple got married in 2016 and lived in Manalapadi village near Gingee, reports The Indian Express. They have another child, aged four. She had taken her younger son to her mother’s home in Chittoor, which is reportedly where she filmed the abuse as well.
In his complaint to the police, Vadivazhagan said that the couple have been living apart for 40 days after a difference of opinion between them. Thulasi had been living at her mother's home since then. According to reports, Thulasi’s relatives found the videos on her phone, and immediately informed Vadivazhagan. After he came to know about the beatings, Vadivazhagan went to pick the children up from Thulasi's mother's home and brought them back to Villupuram with him. He then filed a complaint with the Sathyamangalam police after finding the disturbing videos.
The Sathyamangalam police registered a case against Thulasi and booked her under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 355 (assault with intent to dishonour person) and 308 (culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act. She was produced in a court in Gingee, Tamil Nadu, after her arrest on Monday.
If you know cases of child abuse, call ChildLine on 1098