The five-year-old son of the couple, who have been sentenced to life for murder, will be in Dakshina Kannada. Though he was tipped to go to a school in Belgaum he will now recieve formal schooling in an ashram in Puttur.
The arrangement was made following an order by the Fifth Additional District and Sessions Judge T.J. Shivashankaregowda. The judge, while sentencing parents of the boy to life, had ordered the Mangalore District Prison authorities to produce the boy, who was nearing completion of six years, before the Child Welfare Committee that would decide how he would be taken care of.
After sending his parents to the Belgaum Central Prison, the District Prison authorities produced the boy before the CWC, a few days ago. “We will be taking decision in the best interest of development of the child,” said Child Welfare Committee Chairperson Asha Nayak.
Life imprisonmentThe parents were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court after they were found guilty of murdering an 80-year-old relative of a jeweller and stealing ornaments from the jeweller’s house in Ramakunja in 2007.
The boy’s mother was pregnant when she was arrested along with her husband and lodged in the Mangalore Prison.
The child stayed with her mother in the women’s section of the District Prison, as the Prison Manual provides for stay of the child with her/his parent till six years of age. After conviction however, the Prison Manual doesn’t allow the child to stay with her/his parents and requires alternative arrangements to be made. A teacher, who helps under-trials study, used to teach the boy as well.
Ms. Nayak said the boy does not have much exposure to the outside world. “The boy has morbid fear from moving of buses and cars.” Ms. Nayak said ashram authorities had been instructed to take the child out on a regular basis and acclimatise him with the outside world.
