KOCHI: The 14-year-old girl who had been struggling for life after her father brutally assaulted her and forcibly poured pesticide down her throat in an attempt to kill her for having a relationship with a boy from another community died at a hospital on Tuesday.
The incident took place around 8 am on October 29 and the Aluva West Police arrested the 43-year-old Karumalloor native and booked him for attempt to murder, among other charges.
The hospital authorities said the death occurred at 4.48 pm following multiple organ failure. She was undergoing treatment at the Paediatric ICU. Police said that the inquest proceedings are underway and the body will be handed over to the relatives after conducting a postmortem on Wednesday.
According to the FIR, upon learning of his daughter’s relationship with the boy who studies in the same school in Kadungalloor and belongs to a different community, the man asked her to end the relationship.
He also seized her mobile phone. However, the girl, a ninth standard, continued the relationship, and communicated with the boy using another phone, the FIR said. Angry at her for repeatedly disobeying his directive, the man hit her hands and legs with an iron rod and force-fed her a weedicide. The girl fainted and was rushed to a nearby hospital by other members of the family, said the FIR.
The police received an intimation about the girl from the hospital the next day. Subsequently, they lodged an FIR following a preliminary inquiry and after recording the girl’s statement at the hospital. A dying declaration of the girl was recorded by a magistrate.
Meanwhile, the police said murder charges would be invoked against the accused who is currently in judicial custody.