Father, stepmother get 3 years imprisonment for starving six-year-old to death in Kerala

Kozhikode Additional Sessions Court has awarded three years of rigorous imprisonment to the father and stepmother of six-year-old Aditi Namboothiri, who died of physical torture in 2013. 

Aditi’s father Subramanian - a priest at a temple - and stepmother Devika (alias Ramla) were found guilty of starving the child, but the prosecution failed to prove murder charges against the accused. 

They have been found guilty of voluntarily causing hurt (Section 323 and 324) and under the Juvenile Justice Act.

According to reports, the court has also slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Subramanian. In case of default in remitting the fine, he will have to serve an additional six months in prison. 

On the night of April 29, 2013, Aditi was admitted to hospital with bruises and burn injuries and died a day later. The postmortem report had revealed that the child was subjected to mental and physical torture several times and that the injury caused on the pelvic region had led to her death. 

Following this, Subramanian and Devika were charged of murder (302) and attempt to murder (307). The chargesheet in the case, which said that Aditi had been tortured for a period of one month, was submitted in July this year.