ANDHRA PRADESH: 5-YEAR-OLD DEAF AND MUTE BABY ORPHANED AS POOR PARENTS END LIVES

17.08.2017

Hyderabad: In a heart-wrenching tragedy, parents of a five-year-old deaf and dumb girl committed suicide by jumping into a local canal, rendering her an orphan. The couple is said to have resorted to the extreme being unable to meet the expenses for the baby's treatment.

The baby is temporarily under the care and protection of her paternal grandparents, who conveyed to the police their inability to take care of her for long.

The tragic incident took place in Gubbalavaripalem village of Kothapet block in Andhra's East Godavari district on Sunday night. The police retrieved the body of mother Bhavani on Monday morning but, the father Komaju Srinivas, aged 35, remains to be traced.

According to the relatives, Srinivas and Bhavani left home late Sunday evening to take their daughter Tejaswani to hospital for treatment. Tejaswani was born deaf and mute and was also not able to walk on her own.

As the bike was crossing a canal, Bhavani suddenly got down and jumped into the canal. Immediately, Srinivas parked the bike aside, made Tejaswani sit on the roadside and jumped into the canal too. "The baby and the family told us that he had jumped to rescue her. But, we did not find any eye witnesses", Kothapet station house officer B Vijaya Kumar told Mirror.

Passersby saw the girl crying alone beside the bike and enquired her. From her signs, they realised that both her parents had jumped into the canal. Some of the villagers identified the girl as the daughter of Srinivas and took her to her house, where the neighbours identified her.

SI Kumar further said, "We initially registered a case of couple missing. Today, we altered it to death under suspicious circumstances (Criminal Procedure Code section 174). An investigation is underway."

Srinivas was working as a sports teacher in a private school. He married Bhavani in an inter-caste marriage six years ago.

A pal of gloom descended on the village while disturbing scenes prevailed at the house where speechless Tejaswani was banging her head against the wall and on the floor in grief.