In a brazenly shameful incident defying the essence of motherhood in the national Capital, a 35-year-old woman allegedly thrashed her 18-month-old son with slippers. Caught in a video, the woman was seen beating the baby boy with her bare hands and even tried to hit him by pushing him down the stairs of the main gate of the house.
Sources said it was the grandmother of the child who first approached the Delhi Commission for Women. “The first time when the grandmother approached us, we did not take it seriously and told her to give evidence to prove that indeed her daughter-in-law is beating her son. However, when the old woman brought the CD showing the woman resorting to such a brutal step, we were shocked.”
After the intervention of the DCW, the Delhi Police on Dec 19 registered a case against the woman under the Juvenile Justice Act at the Geeta Colony police station.
According to the allegations leveled by the old woman against her daughter-in-law, the accused even used to beat her two other children and used to quarrel with her husband, with whom she had been married for the past eight years.
DCW officials said the grandmother filed a complaint with them and also provided close circuit television (CCTV) camera footage of one of the incidents to the panel.
In the footage, her daughter-in-law is seen beating the child and then pushing him on the floor, dragging him and repeatedly kicking him till one of her family members rescues the boy.
The woman’s complaint was received by the DCW on Sunday and on Monday, DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal wrote a letter to the station house officer (SHO) of the Geeta Colony police station and sought immediate police action into the matter. A copy of the video footage was also provided to police.
In her letter, the DCW chief also directed police to produce the child before the Child Welfare Committee to ensure he is taken care of.
“Shocked at brutality of mother. Can’t beat animal in manner she beat her own 1.5 year son. Her mental condition needs to be investigated (sic). We are working with the police to ensure justice,” Maliwal tweeted.
A senior police officer of the East district said, “The alleged victim immediately got medically examined. No arrest been made in the case so far as the investigation is in progress.”