THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Fresh details have emerged in the death of a one-and-a-half-year-old boy in Nedumangad, with an audio message indicating that the child’s grandmother had alerted the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) about alleged abuse weeks before the toddler died on May 23.
The audio recording pertains to a phone call made by the child’s grandmother, Reena, to the DCPU on May 3. In the call, Reena informed officials that the toddler had suffered fractures to both arms and expressed fear that he was being abused. However, according to the recording, no concrete intervention followed the complaint.
During the conversation, Reena described herself as helpless and said her daughter had sent her photographs showing the child with both arms in plaster. She said she had been told the injuries occurred after the child fell from a tricycle but expressed doubts about that the explanation. She also claimed there were no other visible injuries consistent with such a fall.
The audio suggests that, despite being informed about the seriousness of the allegations, the official handling the call largely responded with questions and did not initiate any immediate protective measures. At one point, the official suggested that there might be other issues behind the complaint and questioned whether Reena was withholding information.
Reena recounted that before her daughter’s marriage, the family had insisted she marry only someone willing to care for the child. She alleged that her daughter later married Ashkar without the family’s knowledge and moved into his residence. The child had stayed with Reena’s family for around a month before being taken back following police intervention.
In the recording, Reena also recalled a remark allegedly made by Ashkar, who she claimed said he would care for the child only for a few days and later would not even look after him, “like a rotten dog”.
She pleaded with officials to return the child to the family’s custody, saying they were willing to take care of him. The DCPU official responded that such decisions rested with the court and even questioned her why she sent the child with the mother if she heard such a comment from Ashkar.
The official then said that Reena was having a certain “mindset” and in that case she should have acted on it earlier, but was now thinking it all up. He even said that Reena might be saying all this because she was angry with Ashkar.
The emergence of the audio recording has raised serious questions about whether timely intervention by child protection unit authorities could have prevented the tragedy.
