Four-year-old Dhruta Kurlekar was allegedly beaten up by her step-mother and is at present recuperating at the Thane Civil Hospital.
A hospital is hardly the fantasy land a four-year-old would refuse to leave. But Dhruta Kurlekar’s home lies fractured today, much like her left arm.
Her stepmother allegedly beat her up so badly on Monday that her arm broke. Before that, she would be barred from stepping out of her home for months, denied food often and singed with hot iron rods, Dhruta said.
“Mala mummy kade jaycha nahi. Me ithech rahate (I don’t want to go to mother, I want to stay here),” she said on Tuesday. Everyone in the surgical ward of Thane Civil Hospital was moved by the Dhruta’s wounds.
The girl was so terrified that tears ran down every time her step-mother was mentioned.
On Monday, the four-year-old was allegedly beaten mercilessly. That’s when a neighbour, interior designer Rahul Gupte, came to her rescue and took her to the civil hospital for treatment. He also reported the matter to the Kapurbavdi police.
Her stepmother, Vaishali, was arrested, but was later released on bail.
However, when Vaishali returned home with Dhruta’s father Manoj, angry neighbours allegedly attacked the two and again brought them to the Kapurbavdi police station. Manoj is reported to be absconding now.
Sources said Vaishali has a 12-year-old daughter from her first marriage. Her first husband took his daughter with him after this incident.
Gupte, who is now taking care of Dhruta, is willing to adopt her.
“If allowed by the police and law, I will take care of Dhruta for the rest of her life,” Gupte said.
However, Vaishali, who is now detained by the Kapurbavdi police, said she had not done anything wrong.
“I just wanted to punish her as she was not behaving properly. I hit her only after I lost my temper. But I don’t know how her hand got fractured,” Dhruti’s stepmother claimed.
Dhruta lost her mother when she was two. Her father Manoj, a resident of Vijay Park in Kasarwadavli, Thane, re-married soon after.
But after the stepmother took charge of the household, she allegedly started beating Dhruta and her elder brother Tanmay, who was ten at the time. One day during Diwali last year, she allegedly poured boiling oil on Tanmay’s legs and turned him out of the house. Relatives said he now lived in a village called Wada in Thane district.
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