The charge sheet filed in the 'Adeethi murder case' in a local court has revealed that continuous torture by her father and step-mother led to the death of the six-year-old girl.
Besides beating up the child, they often denied food to her as the post-mortem report showed that starvation was one of the reasons for the death.
The charge sheet filed by police on Friday arraigned Adeethi's father Subramanian Namboodiri and his (second) wife Devika alias Ramla Beegum as the first and second accused.
Based on accounts of witnesses, including neighbours, they have been charged under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act.
Severe brutality the girl suffered from her father and step-mother came to light when she was admitted to a hospital in a critical condition with serious burns in April last.
The couple then claimed that the child had fallen into a hot water tub but the doctors, who examined her, refused to buy that theory and immediately informed police.
A few days later she succumbed to injuries and the post-mortem report revealed that the death was due to continuous physical torture and starvation.
The police investigation that followed revealed shocking details of how the hapless child was subjected to inhuman treatment and physical torture by her father and step-mother.
The two are in judicial remand after their arrest.
A temple priest, Namboodiri had moved to Bilathikkulam area in the city about a year ago after taking up the priest's job in a nearby temple. He married Devika after Adeethi's mother died in a road accident a few years ago.
The case is one among recent ones on child torture reported in Kerala. In a similar case, a five-year-old boy is battling for life in a hospital in Idukki after he was tortured brutally by his father and step-mother.
