New Delhi: The battered baby case turned
murkier with police on Monday claiming that her mother, who has
finally been traced, was tricked into a second marriage
allegedly by a woman and her three children were handed over
to other people.
Two women were arrested following investigations into the
case yesterday for their alleged role in tricking the
22-year-old mother of Falak, who was admitted to AIIMS after a
teenaged girl battered her, into the marriage.
The arrested have been identified as Laxmi, who allegedly
handed over two-year-old Falak to one Rajkumar who kept the
girl with his teenaged girlfriend, and Kanta Choudhry who
"conspired" with another woman Saroj. The latter is yet to be
apprehended.
"We are treating the mother of Falak as a victim and not
as an accused. Her three children from the first marriage were
handed over to separate persons by the trio.
"The mother was tricked into a marriage by the accused
who assured her that they were taking good care of her
children and she could reunite with them if her second husband
agrees," Chhaya Sharma, Deputy Commissioner of Police (South),
told reporters.
Laxmi managed to persuade the mother to come to Delhi from
her residence in Bihar's Muzaffarpur. The mother was fed up
with her marriage as her husband is an alleged criminal.
The case which came to light in January last week had its
twists and turns with police arresting four persons in a
related case. The father of teenager, who brought the child to
hospital in a battered condition, was charged with abandoning
her while a couple and another women were arrested for forcing
her into prostitution.
Falak has been battling for life at the AIIMS hospital,
were she was brought on January 18 with severe head injury,
both her arms broken, bite marks all over her body and her
cheeks branded with hot iron.
The child, who has already undergone two life saving
surgeries till now, has shown no signs of improvement and is
back on the ventilator.
"She is not breathing properly. That is why we had to put
her back on the ventilator on February 4 night. The infection
in her body and improper fluid movement are not allowing us to
keep her off the ventilator. She is critical but stable," Dr
Deepak Agarwal, neurosurgeon with the hospital, said.
Investigators claimed Laxmi allegedly tried to mislead
them by telling that the mother had left Falak with her after
her husband died.
But this story fell flat after police managed to trace
the young mother from Jhunjhunu district in Rajasthan
yesterday.
According to police, the mother was tracked by Laxmi, who
made a youth make blank calls to her and later the two would
converse frequently. Laxmi allegedly then persuaded her come
to Delhi.
She was married to one Mohd Shah Husain in 2006 at the
age of 16. "The mother was facing problems in her marriage as
Husain allegedly has criminal background. Laxmi told her that
she will get her married off to somebody else. She came to
Delhi with her three children.
"Laxmi told the mother that with children, it will not be
possible to get married. She can tell her husband later and if
she allows she could get the children back. Laxmi assured her
that the children will be looked after properly," a senior
police official said.
A woman who called herself a relative of Laxmi approached
the young mother and brought her to Delhi.
Meanwhile, Laxmi, Kanta and Saroj managed to trace the
25-year-old man who could not get married due to some
problems. They arranged the marriage of the youth with the
young mother.
"The young woman told her second husband about her first
marriage after a few days. That's way the woman did not cheat
anybody. Her intentions were good. Actually, both the youth
and the young mother were cheated," the official said.
Sharma said a week ago the young woman had spoken to
Laxmi over phone during which the latter assured her that her
children were looked after well.
Asked whether Laxmi and others were running an adoption
racket, she said nothing of that sort has come out yet though
they took money from the youth before the marriage.
During investigation, police claimed, it came to light
that the man whom the young woman married to was also cheated
and misled about her true identity.
"However, having been duped into marriage himself, for
fear of social ostracism, he kept quiet and allowed the woman
to contact Laxmi," Sharma said.
The woman informed Laxmi that she was now in an awkward
position as she had confessed about herself to her husband and
was in a dilemma about what to do next.
"Laxmi advised her to steal all the valuables from the
house of the new groom and come to Delhi, to which the woman
did not agree," Sharma said.
The youth who married Falak's mother was cheated to the
tune of Rs 3 lakh.
"The man was not told anything about the children and had
taken money on loan from various sources to fulfil demands of
the cheats," Sharma said.
PTI
First Published: Monday, February 06, 2012, 22:30