Kochi: A three-year-old boy, who was undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Aluva with severe head injuries allegedly inflicted by his mother for being 'disobedient', died on Friday.
This is the second such incident in a month in the state after the brutal assault and murder of a seven-year-old Thodupuzha boy by his stepfather.
The woman, who hails from Jharkhand, would be charged with murder (IPC Section 302), Ernakulam City Police Commissioner S Surendran told Manorama News.
Earlier, she was charged under IPC Section 307 (attempt to murder) and Section 75 of Juvenile Justice Act (punishment for cruelty to child).
The body has been handed over to police for inquest. The funeral will be held only after showing the body to the boy's mother, said the police. The woman's partner, a migrant labourer hailing from West Bengal, who is in police custody, has been brought to the hospital to complete the inquest formalities.
He had brought the boy to the hospital on Wednesday saying that the child had fallen from a staircase.
The boy's mother had admitted to injuring the toddler to discipline him.
According to the police, the child was hit on the head by a wooden stick. He suffered head and brain injuries and underwent a surgery at a private hospital at Aluva.
The boy slipped into coma later.
The police said the child had been continuously tortured. The couple had also allegedly used a hot metal rod to burn him. He was also hit on the head with a wooden stick.
The toddler and his mother came to Kerala from Jharkhand a week ago. Her live-in partner has been working as a crane operator in a private company for over a year.
The couple has been living near Old Anavathil Junction at Eloor, Kochi.
The kid had old and new burn marks all over his body. There were injuries on his legs also. Hospital authorities who became suspicious had informed the police after seeing several injury marks on the kid.
Cops have contacted their Jharkhand counterparts to get details about the child's family and also to find out whether his father and mother were his biological parents.
Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja said the government would enact stringent laws to punish those who torture kids. The government is also mulling seizure and sale of property of culprits to deter cruelty against children.
Shailaja had said the Kerala government would bear all expenses of the child's treatment.
The government had also sent a team of experts from the Government Medical College Hospital, Kottayam for providing better medical care to the child.
Second incident
A seven-year-old boy from Thodupuzha, who was brutally assaulted by his 'uncle-turned-stepfather', had died in a hospital at Kolencherry on April 6.
The boy was admitted to the ICU of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College Hospital at Kolenchery in Ernakulam and was on ventilator support after his mother's live-in partner assaulted him on March 28, leaving him in coma.
The boy, a class 2 student at a school at Kumaramangalam near Thodupuzha in Idukki district, had a two-inch crack on his skull and over 20 injury marks on his body when he arrived at the hospital.
His stepfather was arrested and charged with murder later.
