SURKHET, Oct 4: A seven-year-old girl here has been severely beaten up by her stepmother leaving her seriously injured.

Already weak with acute malnutrition, the girl, Kamala Mahatara, has received deep internal injuries including dislocated pelvic bone and severe wounds on her body, according to doctors at the Provincial Hospital here. 

She is being treated at the incentive care unit (ICU) of the hospital in Surkhet since the last 11 days. Upon seeing the daughter’s condition, her father Tirtha Bahadur Mahatara faints time and again.

Kamala’s mother had eloped with another man when Kamala was just four years old. A year after this, her father Tirtha Bahadur Mahatara, who works with Nepal Army, brought a second wife, Mana Kumari.

Mana Kumari then started beating her stepchildren on a routine basis instead of giving them proper care, according to Kamal’s elder sister, who has a bruise mark in her eye due to her step mother’s physical assault. 

“After my first wife left, I brought the second wife to take care of my three children,” said Tirtha Bahadur. “I never thought she would turn out to be so cruel. She wanted to kill by daughter.”  

According to Mahatara, Mana Kumari started beating the children as soon as he left for Kathmandu for treatment of dengue fever. Kamala cannot sit upright or stand due to her pelvic injury. “My daughter is already suffering from malnutrition because the stepmother did not feed her properly,” said Mahatara.

According to Dr Dambar Bahadur Khadka, who is the medical superintendent at the Provincial Hospital, Kamala’s condition is critical. “We have been providing her treatment free of cost. She is very weak so she might need to spend the next four-five months in the hospital,” he said. 

Tirtha Bahadur was receiving treatment for dengue at Army Hospital in Chhauni when he received the news from his neighbors about his daughter’s condition. 

He immediately rushed home although he has yet to recover fully from dengue. “My daughter was beaten up with the intention of murder,” said Tirtha Bahadur, who filed an attempted murder case against his wife Mankumari at the District Police Office, Surkhet, on Wednesday. 

District Police Office said they are currently conducting further investigation into the incident. “We have received the complaint and have arrested the accused. We have already started our investigation,” said police inspector Bharat Shah.

 
• surkhet
 
• stepmother
 
• thrashing
 
• minor