An incident of child abuse has come to light in Bengaluru where a two-year-old boy was allegedly beaten and suffered burn injuries on his body inflicted by his grandmother. The incident occurred in the city's Sudduguntepalya, on Friday. Investigating officers said that the mother, Hajira, had gone to her maternal home in SG Palya a month ago, as she was due to give birth to another child.
Hajira and her husband Irfad, who is a daily-wage worker, have five children. While three of her older sons stayed back with Irfad in Gurappanapalya, she had brought her two-year-old boy along with her to her maternal home in Sadduguntepalya. Twenty days ago, Hajira gave birth to another baby boy and was living with her mother Mubbashira.
On Friday, the two-year-old boy allegedly began crying for his father. When Hajira tried to pacify him, he allegedly did not stop crying and kept asking for his father, the SG Palya police inspector Ramesh told TNM. "The grandmother Mubbashira began hitting the boy. She even burnt his face and body with put out matches. She kept hitting him and telling him to stop crying but the boy did not. In order to stop him from crying, they taped the boy's mouth and then beat him," Inspector Ramesh added.
The boy fell unconscious and it was then that Hajira allegedly called her husband Irshad, who rushed to the spot. The boy was rushed to Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, where he is currently undergoing treatment.
Irshad then filed a complaint with the Suddugunte Palya police, after which an FIR was registered against Mubbashira and Hajira under section 326 (causing grievous hurt with a deadly weapon) of the Indian Penal Code, read with section 23 (whoever, having the actual charge of, or control over, a juvenile or the child, assaults, abandons, exposes or wilfully neglects the juvenile or causes or procures him to be assaulted) of the Juvenile Justice Act.
While the police arrested Mubbashira on Saturday, they did not arrest Hajira as she is nursing the 20-day-old baby boy. The custody of the two-year-old will be given to his father Irshad after he is discharged, Inspector Ramesh said.
"The child is out of danger now and will be discharged in a day or two. So far, we have learned that Hajira and Irshad fell in love and got married a few years ago. When the little boy kept asking for Irshad, Mubbashira got angry and is said to have told him that he cannot go to his father. When the child insisted, she started hitting him," he added.