KOCHI: The child Norah Maria, who was murdered in Kaloor on Tuesday, and her elder sibling, aged five years, hail from a broken family, said experts on Wednesday. Officials of child welfare committee (CWC) said that both parents wanted their custody and had raised allegations against each other. Senior policemen said that they were yet to ascertain how the children were deprived of parental care.
CWC chairperson Bitty Joseph said an enquiry by the district child protection unit was held recently due to allegations and counter allegations by the families of both parents.
“The mother had gone abroad leaving the children in the care of the father. Later, her mother raised a claim for the custody of the children through Childline, saying that they were not in a safe place. We conducted an enquiry through DCPU. The plan was to move the children to a care home; but when we contacted the mother and her mother, they said there was no need for the children to end up in a legal tangle,” said Joseph.
She said both sides had alleged that the children were not safe if they stayed with the other family. “Our aim was to move the children to our institution. But, the mother said that she doesn’t want to move her children to an institution and allowed them to stay with the father for the time being. This happened in January. What we understand is that the mother was supposed to return on March 5. We would have rescued and moved the kids to our home. We didn’t do it as they refused institutional care for the children,” said Joseph.
She said CWC will take further action based on the police report. “If we find that the elder child is not safe with the parents, we will take over the child’s custody,” she said.
Meanwhile, a senior police officer said the primary investigation was focused on the murder and a probe will be conducted to ascertain if there was any violation of the JJ Act by the family, leading to her murder.
