A couple parents of two young boys aged 5 and 2 were arrested in Telangana for allegedly torturing them with hot iron rods, branding them with heated objects and inflicting cigarette burns. The boys are currently at a children’s home in Suryapet, the police said. Officials found multiple burns on the children’s body while the wrist of the younger boy suffered a fractured.
The accused have been identified as Nakirikanti Ravi, a 43-year-old stepfather of the elder boy assaulted the boys at his residence in Suryapet. The Huzurnagar police registered a case against the couple under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act and relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita after women and child welfare department officials found signs of prolonged abuse on the children.
According to police, Indu’s first husband had died, following which she married Ravi. Her two sons from the first marriage, Dhanush and Revanth, were living with the couple. Neighbours alleged that Ravi frequently assaulted the children while their mother failed to intervene. The matter first surfaced after complaint from Somu Nirmala, supervisor of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), Huzurnagar sector was also recieved. Following it, local reportedly intervened the latest episode of abuse , rescued the boys and took them to Huzurnagar police station. Acting on the information, the ICDS supervisor, along with staff from the district child protection unit and Childline, rushed to the locality on Thursday morning to verify the allegations.
“We enquired with the neighbours and came to know that the victims area five-year-old boy and his two-year-old stepbrother. They were harassed by parents. Since the past few days, the two boys were subjected to branding with heated ladles and cigarette burns. Their bodies bore burns, scratch marks. The boys were also subjected to mental harassment,” Nirmala alleged.
Preliminary investigation revealed the accused, a 43-year-old truck driver who is HIV-positive, had separated from his first wife about a decade ago and married a 25-year-old divorcee four years ago. The woman has a five-year-old son from her first marriage and later gave birth to a son after marrying the truck driver.
“During the interrogation, the couple said that they see the children as an obstruction to their freedom and subjected them to cruelty due to frustration,” Huzurnagar sub-inspector Ch Suresh said.