The paternal grandparents of a 7-year-old boy who was beaten to death by his mother's partner in Thodupzua, Idukki, is moving the court to get full time protection rights of the younger child. The couple approached the Thiruvananthapuram family court for the same.
The court has sent a notice to the Idukki Child Welfare Committee on the issue. On May 6, the CWC had handed over the protection of the three-and-a-half year old boy to his paternal grandparents for a period of 1 month. The committee had also directed them to produce the child before their panel on Friday (May 31), which the couple failed to do.
"Last week, the parental grandparents approached the family court to acquire protection of the boy. They informed us that they will not produce the kid before CWC on Friday. The court has sent a notice to Idukki CWC. CWC can't interfere in court issues. But we hope the court will take a final decision of the issue. We will seek an explanation from the parental grandparents for failing to produce the child,” Idukki CWC chairperson Joseph Augustine told TNM.
On April 6, 2019, a 7-year-old boy from Idukki, who was the victim of a crime which rattled Kerala breathed his last. He was brutally beaten up by his mother's partner, a 36-year old man named Arun Anand, with the knowledge of his mother. The accused had been cohabiting with the mother. The couple brought the barely breathing child to a private hospital in Idukki, on March 28. They lied to the doctors about his injuries and delayed treatment to the child by refusing to let the doctors do a CT scan to ascertain the level of damage.
The child suffered a fatal head injury among other wounds after being attacked by Arun Anand. He was shifted to the Kolenchery medical college hospital where he battled for over a week on life support before passing away.
During investigations, it was also discovered that the accused had been sexually abusing the victim's younger brother, whose permanent protection is now being sought by the paternal grandparents.
The boys' mother too has been booked for suppressing facts and protecting the accused.
CWC chairperson Joseph also added that the mother had not contacted them to secure custody of her child as yet.