Neighbours still in rude shock

May 03, 2013 01:17 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 10:14 pm IST - Kozhikode:

It seems to be a failure of the civic society at large that led to the brutal death of a six-year-old girl at Bilathikkulam here on Tuesday. The neighbours knew she was being tortured for over six months. Childline was informed and so was the police. Unfortunately, no one did anything on time or else the child could have been saved.

Subramanyan Namboothiri, the priest at the Bilathikkulam temple, rented the house around 10 months ago. Bilathikkulam People’s Residents’ Association president T. Andikkutty, who owned the house in which the family stayed, said Namboothiri was staying with his second wife Devika, their son and two daughters.

The neighbours smelt something fishy six months ago when they noticed that Namboothiri used to beat up the children mercilessly at the slightest provocation. The children were made to wake up at 4 a.m. when Arun was to chant mantras as part of the Brahmin tradition. Some neighbours noticed that Adithi was washing clothes at that time.

The children never used to talk to anyone about the torture they were facing. The teachers of the school where they studied questioned Adithi on the injuries on her hand and were told that it happened when she fell down from a bicycle.

A neighbour called up Childline and the police when they heard shouts and sounds of thrashings from the house quite often and were concerned about the safety of the children. The Childline visited the house thrice, but could only meet the residents on their third visit. Once the gates were closed, and another time, dogs were let loose on them.

On their third visit, the Childline activists visited Namboothiri at the temple and warned him. “The child could have been saved if the Childline had acted more responsibly,” said Mr. Andikkutty.

“They talked to many neighbours and we had given them all the information that we had. Still, they left with just a warning and did not care to seek the help of police when they were denied entry into the house earlier,” he added.

However, the Childline claims that they could not find anything that spoke of such cruel torture at the house.

“We often come across parents who try to discipline children through a little violence. We usually warn them properly against such conduct and take serious action only if the problem persists. In this case, we were called in around 20 days ago. There was not enough evidence or time to resort to drastic steps or inform the police,” Childline Centre Coordinator Subheesh Theyyambadi told The Hindu .

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.