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Unable to meet medical costs, family kills disabled child

Sleuths said the couple were worried about their child’s future and decided to kill her after doctors said the two-year-old will remain disabled for the rest of her life.

A two-year-old differently abled girl died after being pushed into a well by her grandmother and great grandmother at Kanakapura in the Ramanagara district of Karnataka.

It is learned that the parents couldn’t meet the treatment costs of the girl, who had no life in her limbs and couldn’t speak. Police said they have detained B Shankar and K Manasa, the parents, Jayaratnamma (50), her grandmother and J Bhadramma (75), her great grandmother. The victim has been identified as S Mahadevi.

Police said her parents work at a chemical factory in Harohalli industrial area, while her grandmother and great grandmother are homemakers.

During questioning, the couple told police they couldn’t foot her medical bill which came to Rs 10,000 per month. Sleuths said the couple were worried about their child’s future and decided to kill her after doctors said the two-year-old will remain disabled for the rest of her life. With none to care for the girl apart from themselves and her grandparents and fearful of her future when they are all gone, parents decided to take the life of their little one, police said.

“Jayaratnamma and Bhadramma agreed to their plan and took the child to a farmland in a village 6 kms away on the morning of March 8 while the couple was out at work. Once there, they sneaked up to a well and threw the child in it. The couple, who knew about the plan, left early for the factory that day,” an officer said.

Next morning, some villagers spotted a body floating in the well and informed the police.

Soon, a police team arrived at the spot and fished out the body which the villagers identified as the one of the specially-abled child. As a police team dropped in on Shankara’s house and questioned the couple, they claimed someone kidnapped their child and murdered her. However, the claim fell flat after a local temple priest told police that he saw Jayaratnamma and Bhadramma carrying the child somewhere on March 8 and later spotted them returning empty-handed.

On being grilled, the parents confessed to the plan of killing their child, police said, adding that the accused four have been sent to judicial custody.