Vadodara: After receiving a complaint from a child welfare organisation`s telephone helpline in the city, the police arrested a couple here on Friday, for allegedly branding a four-year-old girl child with a hot iron and causing burn injuries.
During police interrogation, it was revealed that the four-year old girl called Muskan was not their daughter and was brought to Vadodara from Kolkata by them, without any legal documents from her mother Reshma Khatun.
The police took Reshma Khatun`s Kolkata number from Jafar and called her to the city to know the facts.
After she arrived in the city, Khatun told the police that she had given her daughter Muskan to the Pathan family so that she is well looked after, since she is not in a position to bring her up because of her poor economic condition. She denied that she had allowed the couple to adopt Muskan.
Khatun had allowed her daughter to be with the Pathans in the hope that she would be properly looked after by them and grow up getting a good education.
The girl`s mother Khatun told the police that she did not like the manner in which her daughter was treated by the Pathan family.
"I gave my daughter to the Pathan family in good faith, since they wanted her because they had no daughter and were blessed with two sons," Khatun said.
Jafar Pathan admitted to the police, that his wife had caused burn injuries on the girl`s body. He also admitted that he had not exchanged any legal documents with her mother.
The in-charge of the juvenile home where four-year-old Muskan is being kept, has refused to give the girl`s possession to her mother Reshma Khatun, saying that it could be done only after higher authorities approve.
Khatun has been camping in the city for the past couple of days to get possession of her daughter from the juvenile home located in the city.
"A proper inquiry will be done before taking any
decision on it. It will be discussed with both parties," Vadodara district collector Vinod Rao told PTI here today, though Khatun has insisted on having her daughter back.
Khatun told the police that Jafar Pathan and his family, who used to be her neighbours in Kolkata, had brought Muskan to Vadodara about an year ago promising her that her daughter would be educated well in the city.
A mother of two daughters, Reshma Khatun allowed the Pathans to take Muskan to Vadodara, since her daughter had become close to the family and used to spend most of her time with them, when she used to go to work, the girl`s mother said.
