A month after the death of a woman in Odanavattom in Kerala’s Kollam district,the police said that her husband allegedly killed her in a state of inebriation. Arun, the husband of Asha George, who died in the first week of November, was remanded after his arrest on Sunday. The couple have two daughters who are nine and six-years old. Asha was first brought to a government hospital near her house on November 1 by her husband. They told doctors that while she was grazing goats, one of them pushed her down from a small hill. As a result, the incident was not informed to the police.
"Though doctors asked them to go for a scan, they did not do that. They returned home on the same day. The next day, she went to another hospital with her father George. From there she was taken to another private hospital, where she died later," Pooyappally Station House Officer (SHO) Vinod Chandran told TNM.
"Her intestine was broken inside and she had internal bleeding. Though she had severe pain, no external problems were visible for the first three days. She might have been scared and therefore, she did not say anything against her husband in the hospital," he added.
It was during her treatment that Asha told her father that she was kicked in her stomach by her husband in an inebriated condition. "She told me not to tell anybody. They also convinced their children not to reveal anything to others. So, the children also gave a different statement in the beginning," George told the media.
After Asha’s death, George filed a complaint with the police. The police had initially filed a case of unnatural death, but there was no proof to arrest Arun. However, after the postmortem report was submitted, the police arrested him.
"In the postmortem, it was revealed that she had no major injuries other than this internal injury. If she had fallen from the hill, there were rocks below, and there would have been other injuries. Her children also told us that they were scared that their father would go to jail, and so, they hid the truth," the police officer added. Police also said that there used to be frequent quarrels between the couple. The children are presently in the custody of Asha’s parents.