A 21-yr-old Kerala woman and her partner were arrested by Varkala police for allegedly murdering her two-year-old son. According to the police, Uthara and her partner Rajeesh (26) had tortured her son, Ekalavyan, until he passed away on Monday. In their statements to the investiating team from the Varkala police station, the couple said that the boy only had loose motions and vomiting. However, a post mortem done by the forensic doctor revealed that the boy had over 90 injuries inside his body, including a broken rib, ruptured small intestine with fluid oozing out, and internal head injuries.
“In their initial statements to the police, the couple said that the child had loose motions. But when we saw the child, he had lots of bruises and injuries. It was clear he was being beaten,” Varkala station sub-inspector told TNM.
On Monday morning, Uthara and her partner had approached the local hospital in Varkala after the baby fell unconscious. The hospital discharged the baby at 12 noon and referred them to a multi-specialty hospital in Thiruvananthapuram for better treatment. The hospital is only an hour’s drive away, police said. Yet, the boy was taken to the hospital only by 3 pm. By 4 pm, the boy was admitted to the Attingal Taluk Hospital in Valliyakunnu, where he passed away. Following his death, the staff intimated the local police.
Following rigorous questioning by the police, Uthara and Rajeesh confessed that they had indeed been torturing the child for months to get rid of him. Uthara was recently separated from her husband Mano, a native of Kulathupuzha in Kollam, and the child was from that marriage.
“For the past 3 months, Uthara and her partner were living in a rented house in Varkala along with the child. A divorce case was filed before Uthara’s separation from Mano, who had asked for custodial rights to the child,” the SI added. Police state that the child’s father was also aware of the mother beating him, but had not expected her to murder him.
“Mano said that the accused used to beat up her child when the couple was together. This was why he had asked for custody of the kid,” said the SI.
Uthara and Rajeesh were charged under IPC sections 302 (Punishment for murder), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) and Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 which deals with punishment for cruelty towards children. Following this, they were produced before the judicial first class magistrate court Varkala and are currently in judicial remand.
The case is similar to the 2014 Attingal twin murder in which the court had found 40-year-old Nino Mathew and his partner Anu Shanthi guilty of plotting the murder of Anu’s 4-year-old daughter Swastika and 57-year-old mother-in-law Omana.
In April 2014, Nino stabbed Omana and bludgeoned Swastika to death in their house. Nino had visited the house stating that he was a friend of Omana’s son, Lijeesh, and wanted to invite him for a wedding. After the twin murders, Nino waited for over 30 minutes for Lijeesh to come home and attacked him, but Lijeesh luckily managed to escape, albeit with injuries.
The police investigation, completed in 24 hours, uncovered Nino’s extramarital affair with Lijeesh’s wife Anu Shanthi. After the prosecution examined as many as 49 witnesses, and presented 85 exhibits and 41 material objects, the judge found Anu equally guilty as she had been aware of Nino Mathew’s plans. The duo had planned the murders as Lijeesh had objected to Anu’s affair with Nino. The duo was charged with murder, conspiracy, attempt to destroy evidence, and theft.