A one-and-a-half-year-old boy in Kerala’s Nedumangad died of internal bleeding after being brutally physically assaulted by his mother and her live-in partner, who were later arrested and sent to judicial custody, police said on Sunday. She added that the autopsy report indicated that the child had 51 injuries to his body.
The accused, Akhila (24) and her live-in accomplice Ashkar (31), have been booked for murder and related charges under the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act following preliminary post-mortem findings, a senior police officer told HT.
The incident came to light after Ashkar took baby Arshith to a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday evening in a serious condition, claiming that the child had food stuck in his throat while eating lunch that day. However, the child died within minutes of being admitted to the hospital. The ensuing autopsy indicated numerous injuries to the child’s body, including burn marks on his feet and even some injuries to his genitals.
The police officer said: “An autopsy confirmed that the child died from internal bleeding, as a result of brutal physical assault over a period of weeks. The main assault occurred at the hands of the mother’s partner who lives in the house while the mother did nothing to stop it. He was banging the child’s head against the wall and using a lighter and cigarettes to create burn marks on the child.”
A video clip taken by a blogger two weeks ago showed the child with his hands completely bandaged. While the mother claimed that he was injured after falling from the bike, police suspect that her live-in partner rained blows on him.
Police summoned the mother, Akhila, who was in Tamil Nadu attending a dance party at the time of the child’s death, and questioned her for hours over the weekend before she was formally arrested. They were sent into judicial custody on Sunday.
Al-Ashqar was also taken to collect evidence to his rented house near Banavoor on Sunday where the assault took place.
Akhila’s mother, Rina, told local media that she strongly believes her daughter and her partner are responsible for the child’s death.
She said: “I asked my daughter several times to hand over the child to us if they did not want to raise him. But she did not comply. I always doubted Ashkar and his ways. When I saw the picture of the child with his hands tied, I doubted that Ashkar was the one who beat him. I filed a complaint against him with the police, but my petition was not taken seriously.”
Arshith’s biological father died in 2024.
Shajila Peavy, the mother of his first wife, said Ashkar had a history of domestic violence and assault. She said that her daughter was severely assaulted by Ashqar during their marriage.
She told reporters: “I was against their marriage, but because of my daughter’s pressure, our family agreed. During their marriage, Ashkar regularly hit her head against the wall. He committed unspeakable cruelty to my daughter. She has been undergoing treatment for the past two years due to the assault.”
While the police said that no previous criminal case had been filed against Al-Ashqar, in light of the testimonies published by the media, they plan to conduct a detailed investigation into his past.
