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A one-and-a-half-year-old child in Kerala’s Nedumangad died due to internal bleeding after sustaining brutal physical assault by his mother and her live-in partner, who were later arrested and sent to judicial custody, police said on Sunday. The postmortem report indicated the toddler suffered 51 injuries on his body, it added.
A senior police officer told HT the accuses, Akhila (24) and her live-in partner Ashkar (31), have been booked for murder and related charges under the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act following the preliminary postmortem findings.
The incident came to light after Ashkar ferried the child, 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 having lunch that day. However, the child died within minutes of being admitted to the hospital. The autopsy that followed pointed to numerous injuries on the toddler’s body, including burn marks on his feet and even some injuries in his private parts.
“The autopsy confirmed that the child died due to internal bleeding, as a result of brutal physical assault over weeks. The principal assault took place at the hands of the mother’s live-in partner while the mother did nothing to stop it. He would bang the child’s head against the wall and use lighter and cigarettes to inflict burn marks on the child,” the police officer said.
A video taken by a vlogger two weeks ago showed the child with both his hands fully bandaged. While the mother claimed he sustained the injuries after falling from the cycle, police suspect that her live-in partner rained blows on his hands.
The mother Akhila, who was away in Tamil Nadu for a dance event at the time of the child’s death, was summoned by the police and questioned for hours over the weekend before being formally arrested. Both were sent to judicial custory on Sunday.
Ashkar was also taken for evidence collection to his rented home near Panavoor on Sunday where the assault took place.
Akhila’s mother Reena told local media that she strongly believed her daughter and her partner were culpable in the toddler’s death.
“I requested 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 was always suspicious of Ashkar and his ways. When I saw the photograph of the child with his hands bandaged, I suspected that Ashkar must have hit him. I complained to the police against him, but my petition was not taken seriously,” she said.
Arshith’s biological father died in 2024.
Ashkar has a history of domestic violence and assault, said his first wife’s mother Shajila Beevi. She said that her daughter was severely assaulted by Ashkar during their marriage.
“I was against their marriage, but due to my daughter’s pressure, our family consented. During their marriage, Ashkar would regularly bang her head against the wall. He has done unspeakable cruelty to my daughter. She has been under treatment for the past two years due to the assault,” she told reporters.
While police said that no past criminal cases have been filed against Ashkar, in the light of testimonies in the media, they plan to conduct a detailed investigation into his past.
Vishnu Varma is Assistant Editor and reports from Kerala for the Hindustan Times. He has 10 years of experience writing for print and digital platforms and has worked at The New York Times, NDTV and The Indian Express in the past. He specialises in longform reportage at the intersections of politics, crime, social commentary and environment.
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