Kottayam: Tortured boy’s mother arrested

Kottayam: The Thodupuzha police on Friday arrested the mother of the seven-year-old child, who was beaten to death by her friend, on the charge of covering up the offence and protecting the criminal.

She was later released on bail by the court. Arun Anand, first accused, who was arrested earlier, is in jail. The child’s mother, who was in a counselling centre at Koothattukulam, was arrested after the police summoned her.

Thodupuzha DySP K.P. Jose said that the arrest was made on the basis of circumstantial evidence and her statement.

The child, who was a Std-II student of the Kumaramangalam government LP school, was brutally beaten up by Arun Anand after his younger brother passed urine in the bed.

The child was kicked in his stomach and thrown to the bed when his head hit the corner of a steel almirah. His skull was also fractured.

He was taken to a private hospital at Thodupuzha around 3.55 am on March 28 and later shifted to a hospital at Kolenchery where he died on April 6.

The Idukki district Child Welfare Committee had asked the police to take a case against the mother under the Juvenile Justice Act a few days ago.

The CWC took the decision on the basis of the statement of the 4-year-old younger brother of the deceased child.