5-Year-Old Girl Allegedly Brands Infant Sister With Hot Fork In Parents' Absence

A 5-year-old girl branded her younger sister with a hot fork in the absence of their parents, media reports said Monday. The elder sister was reportedly jealous of her younger sibling as she allegedly got all the attention from her parents.

The incident, which took place in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, came to light after the victim's parents installed CCTV cameras following the suggestion of the doctor who administered the infant treatment for red spots on her body.

According to the Times of India, the CCTV caught the elder child branding the 1-month-old infant with a fork.

The parents initially thought the baby developed spots due to sepsis or some allergy. The infant was treated for over a month, but she developed new spots, local magazine Puthiya Thalaimurai reported [Google Translate].

Despite visits to the doctor, the baby would cry inconsolably and the parents were clueless as to the cause of their child's pain.

“When the parents brought the child to me again after some days, I was sure the red spots were actually burns. I asked them if anyone was physically torturing the baby. They didn’t have an answer. Then I advised the parents to get a CCTV camera in her room,” Dr. Samal told the Times of India.

The report stated that whenever their mother was busy with household work, the elder girl would go to the kitchen, heat up a fork and inflict burns on the infant’s body. This happened almost every day. The mother would run to the baby to attend to her without knowing what the elder sibling had done.

It remains unclear if any formal complaint was filed with the police in the incident.

According to child psychologist Dr. M K Rath, "Parents should not make a child feel that he or she is inferior to the other kid. Since children do not understand the meaning of counseling, they can only be handled with equal love and affection from their parents."

In October, a 7-year-old girl was allegedly beaten and branded with a spatula by her stepmother. The incident took place in the western state of Gujarat. A video clip shared at the time on social media reportedly showed the child talking about the torture she suffered at the hands of her stepmother. In the video, the child showed the injury marks she sustained from the thrashing she got from her stepmother.