The J.P. Nagar police arrested a 45-year-old construction labourer and his 35-year-old second wife for allegedly torturing his three children, two boys and a girl, aged six, four and three years. The incident took place at their house in KSRTC Layout in J.P. Nagar on Monday.
After his wife passed away two months ago, Tamil Selvan remarried, and he and his wife Satya were raising the children, said the police. “Satya would complain about the children when he returned from work and an enraged Selvan would torture them. He slashed their legs with a blade and branded their bodies with a hot ladle,” said a police officer.
The children are being treated at the Victoria Hospital and will be handed over to the Child Welfare Committee, the officer said.
Ranjith Kumar, one of the residents and social worker by profession, told the police that on Monday around 8.30 p.m., he and other residents heard the children crying for help. When they went to investigate they found the six-year old boy bleeding profusely from his leg.
Eyewitnesses said the father was holding a hexa blade, which he flung away when they entered the house. “The boy also had burn injuries on his legs and on his shoulders. The other two children were hiding under the cot. The siblings too had similar injuries,” said a police officer.
The father and stepmother managed to escape from the house when the residents were busy attending to the children. However, the police tracked them down and arrested them.
