New evidence in the case of a 7-year-old boy being beaten to death by his mother's partner in Kerala shows that the accused tried to delay the treatment of the boy, The News Minute reported. The CCTV footage from the hospital where the boy was taken for treatment clearly shows that the accused Arun Anand tried to delay treatment for the child, in order to reduce the chances of survival.
The TNM report says that when the boy’s mother and her partner took him to the hospital, the doctors observed the couple’s odd behaviour and alerted the police.
The unconscious boy was taken to the hospital in the wee hours of Thursday, 28 March to Chazhikattu hospital, a private institution in Idukki’s Thodupuzha.
The TNM report quoted Dr Sheikh Ansari, the medical emergency specialist at the hospital, who said that the couple gave conflicting accounts of what had happened and were reluctant to get a CT scan done.
“The three of them arrived at the hospital around 3:55 am. The victim could not breathe and we intubated him immediately. When I asked the parents what happened, both of them gave very different statements. That was the first red flag.”Dr Sheikh Ansari, medical emergency specialist, Chazhikattu hospital
The doctor said that the mother told them the incident happened when the couple was not at home and said that the boy might have fallen somewhere while playing in the middle of the night. The accused, on the other hand, said that the boy had been beaten up by their neighbour's child. The doctor then issued a Medico Legal Certificate and alerted the police, the TNM report said.
The doctor said that despite multiple conversations on how critical the victim was, the couple was unresponsive and kept trying to delay the treatment.
Later, the report said that the accused told the doctors and staff that they will take the victim to another hospital as they did not want an operation. By this time, the police had arrived at the hospital.
When the hospital called for an ambulance for them, the accused reportedly argued with the staff that the three would go in his car instead. By this time, TNM says the police forced the couple into the ambulance. By this time, the boy had gone about 1.5 hours without treatment, TNM further reported.
(With inputs from The News Minute.)
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