An one-and-half-year-old toddler was hospitalized Sunday in Indore, with atrocious cigarette burns on the body and fractured bones after the little one was battered and abandoned by her mother's lover.
The incident happened when the memories of a two-year-old Baby Falak are fresh in minds of the people. Falak, who was found in the similar state with a fractured skull and human bite marks on her body in January this year, succumbed to her injuries in March.
The infant, Shireen, was brought to Indore hospital by her mother on Sunday in a terrible condition. The toddler had 11 cigarette burns, battered hands and multiple fractures on the body. Also, her elder son's hand was found broken.
Their mother reportedly blamed her live-in partner Waheed Khan for allegedly torturing the little one and burning her with cigarette butts in her absence.
"Waheed inflicted cigarette burns on Shireen and used hot objects to burn her hands and legs. He also broke her arms," Hindustan Times quoted Shireen's elder sister as saying.
The child's mother, whose actual name is Zarina (according to NDTV news channel) has two other kids.
Zarina separated from her husband and ran away with her three kids to Ajmer, where she started living with her lover Waheed.
However, a few months later, she again escaped from Waheed's house as he reportedly abused her children and forced her into prostitution.
"He used to beat my daughter in my absence. He also broke her arms," Zarina told NDTV. "I thought the swelling could have been because of minor beatings, I didn't know the baby's arms were broken."
"One day when I went out for work, he rubbed bidi-butts into my baby's body," she said.
Indore police yesterday arrested Waheed after he admitted to the crime. "I am accepting that it's a mistake," he confessed, according to NDTV.
However, he insisted that it was just an accident and he had no intentions to hurt the baby. "Her mother had stopped eating and was complaining of stomach pain from past two-three days. When I asked her to eat she refused. So I hit her. Her daughter was sleeping in between so when I hit her, she got hit too," he said.
The Medical Superintendent of MY Hospital, where the kids are being treaded, confirmed The Hindu that both the children are out of danger now.
Hindustan Times reported that the children's biological father, Iqbal, has sought legal custody of all three children after learning about the grisly incident.
