Grandma turns tormentor for 4-yr-old in Sirsa

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 22

Annoyed at the birth of three granddaughters, a woman in Sirsa’s Maujukhera village allegedly burnt the private parts of her four-year-old granddaughter with a tong. Members of the District Child Protection Committee, who learnt about the incident, rescued the child, took her to a hospital and lodged a police complaint.

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Anjana Dudi, Child Protection Officer, Sirsa, told The Tribune that the incident, that occurred on July 9, came to light on July 18. “The girl’s mother told social worker Ram Gopal that her mother-in-law had burnt the child’s private parts with a tong as she was upset with her for having given birth to three daughters. Our worker told the family to produce the child before the District Child Protection Committee in Sirsa, but they ignored the directions,” she said.

On July 20, committee members Gita Kathuria, Vijay Malik and Puran Chand visited the village, but the girl’s mother changed her statement, claiming the girl had sustained burn injuries with steaming hot tea accidentally falling on her. But the girl's two sisters, aged six and seven, blamed their grandmother, claiming she wanted a grandson and treated them with utmost cruelty, Dudi said.

The committee members, who took the girl to a hospital and informed the police, were told by village residents that the family desperately wanted a boy and may have committed atrocities on the girls.

“An FIR under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, has been registered against unknown persons on the complaint of the District Child Welfare Committee,” Jagir Singh, SHO of the Ding police station in Sirsa, said.

Asked why an FIR against "unknown persons" when the accused (grandmother) had been identified, he said they had simply filed a report on the basis of the committee members' complaint.