Three persons were arrested on Friday in the case of torture and chopping off the tongue of a 15-year-old girl at Bantumilli in Krishna district.
The Bantumilli police led by sub-inspector D. Durga Maheswara Rao took into custody M. Venu Gopal, the victim’s brother, M. Adi Lakshmi, her sister-in-law and K. Kantamma, Ms. Adi Lakshmi’s mother. They were produced before a local court which remanded them in judicial custody.
The incident occurred on March 5, but came to light on Wednesday when the girl approached the police with the support of local people, following which cases were registered against the three under IPC Sections 342 and 324 on charges of “house arrest and subjecting to cruelty”.
Condition stable
Meanwhile, the victim has been produced before the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) which has directed the Women and Child Welfare authorities to shift her to the children’s home’ in Vijayawada. “The health condition of the victim is stable and now she is able to talk clearly,” said Integrated Women and Child Welfare Department Project Officer K. Krishna Kumari.
During counselling and registration of statement by the Women and Child Welfare officials, the victim, suspected to be mentally unsound and a school dropout, reportedly told the officials that not agreeing for an early marriage was one of the prime reasons for the torture by her relatives.
“The victim has shown us burn injuries on her body and the injury on the tongue after it was chopped off by her relatives who allegedly forced her to get married against her wish,” Ms. Krishna Kumari told The Hindu . However, as per the preliminary investigation, failing to attend to household work was one of the reasons for the physical abuse of the victim.
