An infant who suffered serious head injury after being allegedly assaulted by her father was subjected to hours long surgery at Kolencherry Medical College on Monday.
The surgical procedure known as subdural evacuation for removing a blood clot from the brain started around 9 a.m. and was completed around 1.30 p.m.
Since then the infant, who was just 54-day-old at the time of the incident, has been moved into the neuro Intensive Care Unit on oxygen support and her condition remains critical, a medical bulletin issued by the hospital said. A clear idea of her evolving condition will be known in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Shocking
The incident in which her father allegedly slapped her inflicting the brain injury on Thursday night had shocked the collective conscience of the society.
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja on Monday said that the Department of Women and Child Development would bear the medical expenses of the infant and that the Health Department would make necessary interventions if more advance treatment was required.
Angamaly police had registered a case against the father, Shaiju Thomas, 40, of Kannur, under IPC Section 307 (attempt to murder) and relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act.
“Our investigation is nearly over as we have corroborated the sequence of events by collecting statements from the wife, sister and mother of the accused,” said the investigation officer and Inspector T.K. Josy.
He said that the infant used to sleep through the day and remain awake in the night. On the fateful day, when the infant started crying incessantly, the accused who was already into a quarrel with his wife, slapped the infant and threw her on to the bed.
The accused, an occasional drinker, used to turn suspicious about the parentage of the infant whenever he got drunk. However, on the day of the incident he was not drunk, Mr. Josy said. The infant was initially taken to a private hospital at Angamaly from where she was referred to the Kolencherry Medical College considering the serious nature of the injury.
Different versions
Though the parents in their attempt to hide the actual happening tried to push different versions of the incident, hospital authorities turned suspicious and alerted the police.
The accused and wife, of Nepalese descent, met over the Facebook and got married in a church in Nepal last August. The marriage was arranged by his brother, a pastor, by getting in touch with the woman’s brother who was also a pastor.
The couple had been living at a rented house in Angamaly since then.
