The Anamalai police in Coimbatore district have arrested the supervisor of a coco-peat company in connection with the death of a three-year-old girl child of a Jharkhand couple who worked under him.
Santhu Mohamed (28), a resident of M.K. Garden at Ambarampalayam, was arrested on Monday for the death of Rupali, daughter of Silema Mahto and Saraswathi Devi from Jharkhand, in January this year.
The couple were working in a coco-peat company at Akilandapuram within the limits of the Anamalai police station near Pollachi. They used to leave their son and daughter at the workers’ quarters attached to the coco-peat unit.
According to the police, Mohamed found Rupali unconscious at the quarters on January 6 afternoon. He informed the parents and the girl was rushed to a private hospital. The girl was later referred to the Government Hospital, Pollachi, where doctors declared her dead.
The Anamalai police registered a case for unnatural death under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
During investigation, the police examined the surveillance camera visuals in the unit and found that Mohamed had kicked the child in the abdomen three days before she was found unconscious. The Jharkhand couple also told the police that their daughter had complained of hip pain on the same day.
The police received a post-mortem report and the final opinion of the police surgeon on June 17. The final opinion said the girl could have died of blunt injury she suffered in the abdomen. The police altered the Section 174 of the CrPC initially to Section 304 (2) (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder - if act is done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death, but without any intention to cause death, etc.) of the Indian Penal Code.
“The accused claims to have playfully kicked the child when she refused to drink the tender coconut he had offered,” said Anamalai Inspector K.S. Harikrishnan. The accused was produced before a court and remanded in judicial custody.
