GIRL’S DEATH: PARENTS HELD ON CHARGE OF NEGLIGENCE

The father and stepmother of a 16-year-old girl were arrested here on Monday on charge of negligence causing the child’s death.

The parents of Jamia, a Class X student residing at Aluva, had taken the girl to a hospital here around 6.00 a.m. after the girl fell ill. Hospital authorities said the child was brought dead. Neighbours of the girl told the police that her father Ummar, 48, and stepmother Ramla had been mistreating the child, who was suffering from tuberculosis for a while.

“Preliminary reports from the postmortem indicate that the child died due to tuberculosis. But there are indications that the girl had not been fed properly or taken good care of. We have taken the parents into custody and a case has been registered under Section 304 A of IPC for causing death by negligence,” said Aluva West sub-inspector of police T.N. Somarajan.

The police said Ummar, who runs a building demolition business, had remarried after his first wife become mentally ill. Jamia had been staying at an orphanage at Nilambur for studies. She had been brought to her father’s house at Aluva for treating TB. The police said the child had also undergone treatment for her illness at a hospital here for more than a week in December.