MALAPPURAM: The Tirur police on Tuesday launched an investigation into the death of six children below five years in a family in a span of nine years.
The six children are four daughters and two sons of the couple, 39-year-old Rafeeq and 30-year-old Sabna (age as given by their relatives) of Tharammal house at Chembra in Tirur. The police registered a suo motu case following the death of the couple’s three-month-old second son on Tuesday morning.
According to the police, the couple got married in 2010 and between 2011 and 2019, Sabna gave birth to six children. The first child, a girl, died within six months in 2011, the second, also a girl, within two months of birth, the third, a boy, in his second month, the fourth, a girl, when she was 4.5 years old, and the fifth, a girl, when she was three months old.
The incident came to light when the neighbours informed the police about the sixth child’s death on Tuesday. Though the family members explained to the neighbours that health issues related to epilepsy led to the tragedy, they found something suspicious in the series of deaths in the family.
Their suspicion grew when the parents buried the child who died in the morning by 10am on the same day.
The police said they launched an investigation and conducted a preliminary inquest of the house and the spot where the child was buried and exhumed the body. The postmortem examination was conducted at the Tirur district hospital by experts from the forensic department of Manjeri Medical College Hospital.
“The preliminary postmortem report did not cite any unusual factors. There were no signs of injuries and other marks on the body. More details like the factors that led to the child’s death can be ascertained only after the chemical tests,” said Tirur Circle Inspector Farshad T P.Tirur DySP K A Sursh Babu said they would look into all angles of the case.
Meanwhile, relatives of the family said they are ready to cooperate with any probe. “The police and others are welcome to check the health documents of the children and there is nothing unusual in their deaths. However, we are cooperating with the investigation to clear people’s doubts. We had got some tests done on the third child’s body and nothing unusual was identified in the report,” said Noorjahan Tharammal, a relative.