In a tragic incident, a four-year-old child was made to sit on a hot frying pan and then made to stand on it by her mother and her paramour under SR Nagar Police station limits here on Saturday.
The child Rupali (name changed) who received third-degree burns on her buttocks and feet has been shifted child care centre in Sisuvihar and the culprits have been arrested.
According to the SR Nagar police, the child's mother Lalitha, who is from Ichapuram in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh eloped with Prakash of the same village, who is a father of three children.
They went to Hyderabad and started working at Sri Padmavathi Venkateshwara boy's hostel in west Srinivas Nagar under SR Nagar Police station limits. However, Lalitha lied to her employees that Rupali is an orphan.
On Saturday, they both took a badly-burnt Rupali to the Bharosa centre at Nampally saying that they came to admit an orphan, who they found on the streets.
The staff of the centre, in turn, took the three to the Gopalpuram Police Station to lodge a complaint. However, the police sensing that there was something wrong after seeing the burns on the child's body, handed over the case to SR Nagar Police.
After a thorough interrogation, it was revealed that Prakash and Lalitha tortured the child to get rid of her.
Meanwhile, child rights activist Achyuta Rao of Balala Hakkula Sangham in a statement demanded that an attempt to murder case must be booked against the mother and the stepfather and child should be taken care of by the government.