Woman, associate arrested for torturing child in Mandya

The Mandya police have arrested two persons on the charge of inflicting burns on a three-year-old girl — the mother of the child and an associate — who was admitted to the Mandya Institute of Medical Science (MIMS) hospital on Monday.

The two were identified as Hanumanthu of Vaddara Colony in Kirugavalu in the district, and Kavitha, a resident of Thalaghattapura in Bangalore.

Hanumathu is a mason, while Kavitha is a garment employee. The police said that Hanumanthu was under the influence of liquor when he inflicted burns on the child with a cigarette butt.

“We have arrested the two and are questioning them,” Borase Bhushan Gulabrao, Superintendent of Police, Mandya, told presspersons here on Wednesday.

Kavitha is learnt to have separated from her husband recently and living with Hanumathu at her residence with her two children.

Beaten up

The children were often beaten up.

Hanumanthu had handed over Kavitha’s elder son to his first wife Yellamma, who lives in Vaddara Colony, and handed over the three-year-old to his sister-in-law Chikka Thayamma, after torturing the baby.

It is learnt that Hanumanthu tortured the child after Kavitha resisted his attempts to separate the child from her.

Earlier, the police had suspected Chikka Thayamma of kidnapping the child from the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus stand in Bangalore.

“We will file a case against the two for abandoning the children and torturing the girl,” said District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) officer S. Diwakar.

The child is recovering at MIMS hospital.

The DCPU officials said that they will hand over the children to the district child welfare committee.