A nine-year-old boy, who was hospitalised after his drunken father slashed his buttocks with a knife, was handed over to a child care home by the State Women’s Commission.
The boy, Daniel, along with his sister Dalia, told the women’s commission chairperson, Justice K. Sreedevi, that he would rather stay in a care home than with his alcoholic father, Michael.
“He has no love for me and my sister when he is drunk,” said Daniel.
“If I don’t give him a glass to pour his liquor, he will beat me with whatever he gets. I am terrified of him,” he said.
Last Friday, Michael had come home drunk and had got enraged after finding that his pack of beedis had gone missing.
He caught hold of Daniel, tied him to a palm tree and had inflicted injuries on his buttocks with a knife after beating him severely.
Alarmed by the child’s pitiful wails, neighbours rushed in, untied him and took him to a hospital.
After media publicised the issue, Michael disappeared. He was arrested from a bus stand in the suburb on Sunday.