Nine-year-old critical after mother hits him with iron rod, coconut

When the Childline volunteers came to the rescue of the nine-year-old boy from Idukki in Kerala on Tuesday, he was not in a condition to stand up on his legs. He was badly beaten up, allegedly by his mother, with an iron rod. He was alone, starving and locked up in a room.

The volunteers rushed the seriously wounded boy to a hospital in Ernakulam. Doctors found multiple bruises and partially healed wounds on his body, presumably inflicted by hitting with an iron rod and coconut.

Asianet News reports that the condition of the boy, who is undergoing treatment in the ICU at Ernakulam Cooperative Medical College, is very critical.

The child victim has full of bruises on his body and burn injuries on his face, apparently caused by pouring hot water. The hemoglobin level in his blood has gone alarmingly low and it will take nearly two weeks for the victim to return to normalcy, the doctors said.

The boy must have been undergoing the ordeal for a long time, the Childline officials said. Police have taken the boy’s mother in custody in connection with the incident.

Relatives of the boy told the Childline officials that the woman was not in touch with any of them. She is also a drug addict, they alleged. The boy's father is serving a jail term in a criminal case.   

• Child abuse
• Child rights
• Childline
• child abuse mother detained