A three-year-old boy who was grievously injured following alleged parental torture died at a private hospital at Aluva on Friday morning.
He was admitted to the hospital with head injuries and severe internal bleeding on Wednesday. Post-mortem examination was conducted at Government Medical College Hospital.
The police collected blood samples for DNA tests to identify his parentage.
His mother, Hena, 28, from Jharkhand, was arrested on Thursday and charges, including attempt to murder, were slapped on her.
The police said a man, identified as Shahajad Khan from Kolkata, who claims to be her husband, was under police surveillance.
Charges changed
“We will alter the charges to Indian Penal Code Section 302 for murder. We have also sent teams to Jharkhand and West Bengal to verify the parents’ antecedents,” District Police Chief (Kochi City) S. Surendran told The Hindu . The police have informed the court about altering the section to that of murder.
The police have already invoked IPC Sections 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender), 202 (intentional omission to give information of offence by person bound to inform), 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention), and Section 75 (cruelty to child) of the Juvenile Justice Act against the woman.
The police are looking for evidence to prove the man’s culpability in the incident and verifying the couple’s claim that they married four years ago. “As of now, we cannot verify whether they are husband and wife or that the man is the biological father of the deceased child,” sources said.
The man had been working at a private crane services company here for the past one year while the woman had come to Kochi 20 days ago.
Hospital sources said injury to the head led to the death of the child. He had been critical all along even after the three-hour neurosurgery and was on ventilator support. There were burn marks on the body of the child.
The police said the woman confessed to inflicting burns on the child when he disobeyed her. However, she claimed that the head injury was caused by a fall from a concrete slab in the kitchen of their house at Eloor, which the police termed suspect.
