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‘Wife runs away, man poisons kids. One kid dies.’
This was the gist of a news report from Perumbilavu in Kerala’s Thrissur in July first week. The incident had resulted in the tragic death of a Class 2 student, Sanjana*.
The rat-poison-laced juice served by her father Muthu nearly killed her brother, 5-year-old Santhosh*. He luckily escaped after his mother Shreya* (23) donated a part of her liver to him for a transplant.
TNM searched beyond the headlines to understand how the tragedy unfolded.
What we uncovered was a story of domestic violence, child abuse, and the state’s abject failure to protect a child.
When TNM spoke to Shreya, she was recuperating at a private hospital in Kochi following the liver transplant surgery on July 11. A mother of three at 23 and weighing just 33 kg, she could pass off as a teenager. Her uneven, dishevelled hair and chipped front tooth had more to tell than met the eye.
Considering the risk of infection, we spoke on a video call.
Of her three children, she had lost Sanjana (7), Santhosh was under recovery after the liver transplant, and the youngest, three-and-a-half-year-old Surya*, was under her care.
Shreya had got married to her cousin Muthu when she turned 18, after her relatives withdrew a POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) case filed against him for impregnating her when she was 15.
The chain of events leading to the children’s poisoning began on June 28, when Shreya fled from her home with Surya, unable to endure Muthu’s abuse. Muthu, a labourer working in quarry units, was an alcoholic, Shreya said.
“Everything was fine during the initial two years of my marriage to Muthu (29). Thereafter, I was subjected to continuous torture,” Sherya told TNM.
A few years into the marriage, Sanjana and Santhosh were entrusted to two different orphanages. Sanjana was at Angela Bhavan, an orphanage run by Franciscan Clarist Congregation in Venginissery, Thrissur. Santhosh was under the Thrissur Child Welfare Committee’s care, at the Emmanuel Boys Home, an orphanage for boys near Angamaly. The youngest, Surya, remained with the couple.
Shreya left home after Muthu, in a bout of violence, had beaten her up, kicked her face, and forcefully cut her hair using a sickle. In the midst of the assault, Shreya’s front tooth broke and came apart.
“I could barely move my left hand after that incident. The hospital is now providing physiotherapy,” Shreya told TNM.
With no other options at hand, she said she took the next bus to Kochi with Surya. She stayed at the budget-friendly She Lodge, which charges a rent of only Rs 100 per day. Shreya then contacted her sister Sreedevi for help.
In the subsequent days, while Shreya was trying to get a job as a home nurse in Kochi, Muthu persistently asked her to return, often with threats of harming the two older children.
On July 5, the fateful day of the poisoning, Muthu brought their older children back home from the orphanages.
“Shreya had not informed the orphanage authorities about Muthu’s abusive nature,” Sreedevi said when asked how the authorities allowed the kids to go with him.
After all attempts to pressure Shreya into returning home failed, Muthu tried to die by suicide, after giving fruit juice laced with poison to the two kids.
Kunnamkulam police later arrested Muthu, who is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College, Thrissur, under police custody. He had attempted to flee from custody the next day, but was soon nabbed.
On July 8, Muthu’s relatives cremated Sanjana’s body, while Shreya was getting ready for the organ donation to save Santhosh, who was critical from consuming the poison.
Shreya’s fate changed at the age of 15 when Muthu, her 22-year-old cousin, took her out under the pretext of watching a movie.
When Shreya did not return home, her relatives filed a case, which ended with Muthu’s arrest under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Shreya was shifted to a childcare facility, where she lived till the age of 18.
“When Muthu was jailed, we realised that Shreya was pregnant with Sanjana. So when she turned 18 in 2021, we had no other option but to settle the case and get them married,” Sreedevi said.
Shreya grew up as the second of four siblings. Her family has roots in Andhra Pradesh, but shifted to Kerala two generations back. Shreya’s mother had left the family years ago, apparently due to domestic abuse at the hands of their father, Paramasivam.
When Paramasivam died around four years ago, Shreya, Sreedevi, and their two younger brothers – now aged 20 and 15 – were left with no family to fall back on.
Shreya said the domestic abuse began two years after she married Muthu, and she endured it all because she had no other place to go.
In one of the initial instances, she ran away to Sreedevi’s house in Vadakkancherry, where she was living after she got married. Muthu, who followed Shreya, beat her up with an iron rod right in front of Sreedevi.
“I froze seeing the sheer extent of violence inflicted on my sister. I could barely move. He then dragged her away,” Sreedevi recollected.
Some trade union workers who witnessed the abuse alerted the police, resulting in the Vadakkancherry police registering a case of domestic abuse against Muthu.
Shreya left home multiple times in the past, which once led to the CWC taking charge of the custody of their second child, as both parents failed to take care of him.
While Shreya’s family said that multiple complaints of domestic abuse were filed against Muthu, TNM has not been able to verify all the instances.
The most recent case was registered against Muthu in April by the Kunnamkulam police.
According to Kunnamkulam SHO Saneesh, Muthu was remanded in custody for two months then. He said that Muthu had assaulted Shreya on suspicion that she was having a relationship with a relative. “He showed signs of psychiatric disturbances and had suicidal tendencies,” Saneesh said.
According to Sreedevi, Muthu and his relatives alleged that Shreya had eloped with her relative on June 28. “Everyone is blaming Shreya for her kid’s death,” Sreedevi said.
While Shreya said that she had developed a romantic relationship with another relative, she said that she left her home this time to escape from Muthu’s brutal torture.
“I was working as a home nurse in Kochi, and one day I couldn’t pick up when Muthu called. He became suspicious. When I returned home, he began torturing me. He cut my hair and kicked my face, saying that no one will look at me if I am ugly. He then hit me with electric cables,” she said.
When asked why she did not alert the police or relatives about the abuse, Shreya said she was unable to move for days. “How will I contact anyone when I could barely move? Even to use the toilet, I had to seek Muthu’s help. He had also taken away my mobile phone,” she said.
That is how, when she got better, Shreya ran away to Kochi, taking her youngest child with her. Though she planned to search for a job, she couldn’t leave Surya as she feared Muthu might harm him. She thought that her two other kids – living in two orphanages – were safe.
Meanwhile, Muthu began threatening her to come back. On July 5, he went to the orphanages and took the kids home. He told authorities that he would return them by evening.
Advocate K Sunilkumar, chairman of the Thrissur district CWC, said that the CWC had immediately alerted the Kunnamkulam police after learning that Muthu had taken Santhosh away.
“The elder child was in a private orphanage and the younger one was under CWC’s care at the Emmanuel Boys Home. Police were immediately alerted, but we learned that the children had been given poison by that time. They were under treatment at the Government Medical College, Thrissur, in a critical condition. We sent an email detailing the incidents to the office of the CM, and there was immediate direction to shift the kids to Aster Medcity, a private hospital in Kochi, where they underwent plasma exchange treatment. However, the elder child could not be saved,” he said.
The government has said it will take care of the treatment cost at Aster Medcity.
When asked whether a child could be taken away when under CWC’s care, Sunilkumar said that it would not be possible to deny a father custody in the absence of any prior intimation.
He explained that Santhosh was taken under CWC’s custody after a social investigation study confirmed that he needed protection, as neither of his parents was available at that time for his care. He said that further details were not available as Santhosh’s admission happened before the current committee took charge.
Despite multiple cases of domestic abuse, Muthu and Shreya continued living together, apparently due to lack of institutional support. Advocate Sandhya Janardhanan, lawyer and secretary of Sakhi Women’s Resources Centre, said that police often tend to settle domestic abuse cases, especially if the couple has children. “Recently in one such case in Thiruvananthapuram, the husband ended up killing the woman after their dispute was settled at the police station,” she said.
Sandhya, who is the executive member of Domestic Violence Prevention Committee, said that they have requested the state government to form a committee that could suggest comprehensive changes for all stakeholders, including the police and judiciary, so as to equip it to handle domestic violence cases. “Now with the way these agencies handle such cases, women and children are getting killed. Also married women are dying by suicide along with their children. So it is high time for the state to come up with a comprehensive change to handle such cases with gender sensitivity,” she said.
“She looked very weak and started sobbing when she saw me. I told her she would get better. The hospital authorities did not permit us to stay long. While I was leaving, she waved at me,” said Sister Sherly (name changed on request), a former office bearer of the Angela Bhavan Orphanage, where Sanjana had been living since the age of four.
Sister Sherly’s last glimpse of Sanjana was at the ICU of the Government Medical College, Thrissur. Police stood outside the ICU guarding the child.
That evening, Sanjana was shifted to Aster Medcity, where she passed away a day later.
Sanjana was ‘Pundu’ to the nuns and other inmates at the orphanage. When Pundu first arrived, she was unable to speak clearly.
“The first spelling I taught her was of her own name. Being the youngest, she immediately became everyone’s favourite. She was easily drawn to anyone who showed even a tiny bit of affection towards her,” Sister Sherly recalled.
Pundu joined the orphanage as her cousins (her father’s sister’s children) had also been living there.
The orphanage provides free education and accommodation for children from poor families till Class 10.
From using a commode to pronouncing words, Pundu began learning everything with the support of the nuns. She excelled in her studies, and on July 6, she was set to receive a badge for scoring an A+ in the mid-term exams.
A few months ago, Sister Sherly got transferred to a school in Thrissur, but kept in touch with the orphanage and kids, including Pundu.
In her last phone conversation, days before the tragic poisoning, Pundu told the nun that her mother had left home and her father had threatened to die by suicide.
“I consoled her and asked her to focus on her studies. I told her that I would wait for the day she comes to see me as a successful woman, driving her own car,” the nun said.
Learning about Shreya leaving the house, the orphanage authorities tried to contact her over phone but the call remained unanswered.
On July 5, when Muthu came to take Sanjana, the orphanage authorities were hesitant as she had school the next day. He told them that he had planned some temple visits and would bring her back by evening.
As per reports, Muthu took the two children to a house belonging to his sister. He sent Sreedevi two voice notes in which Pundu could be heard saying that they were going to their late grandfather’s place, seemingly unaware of the veiled threat behind those words.
“We heard that the children were beaten up and forced to consume the juice. Muthu then sent the kids to a relative’s place to inform them that they all had consumed poison. That is how others came to know about it,” Sister Sherly said.
Pundu’s life was marked by a series of injustices from the moment she was born, and she died before realising any of them.
*Names changed to protect privacy
