7-Year-Old Girl Starved, Brutally Tortured For A Year By Father And Stepmom

A 7-year-old girl in India was allegedly subjected to inhuman physical and mental torture for more than a year by her father and stepmother.

The incident took place in the eastern state of Odisha, where the girl had been living with her father since her parents' divorce in the year 2020.

“Following the divorce of her parents, the child was taken by her father forcibly. He subjected the child to brutal torture by not feeding her for months. She is badly malnutritioned and her weight has gone to five kilograms (11 pounds),” social worker Md Jamil Akhtar told Ommcom News.

The incident came to light after the girl's biological mother found out about the torture, and rescued her. The child was later admitted to Capital Hospital.

Local media reported the girl had been reduced to bones due to starvation. She reportedly told her mother her father, identified as Bilal Khan, inflicted serious burn injuries on her fingers by dipping them in hot milk.

The girl’s mother, Rizwana Parveen, who rescued her demanded severe punishment for the culprits.

“My daughter told me that she was being beaten with (a) broom and kicked frequently. Her stepmother even tried to strangulate her. Why he (Bilal) had taken the custody of my daughter, if he had to torture my daughter. They must get adequate punishment for subjecting my daughter to such inhuman torture,” she said, according to Odisha TV.

Meanwhile, the girl's father denied the accusations of torture, and said that the cause for his daughter's condition was bad health and psychological stress.

“I never beat up or starved her. She inflicted the burn injuries by putting her fighters into boiling milk when I was away. Her health condition deteriorated as she was in [sic] stress and missing her mother,” Khan told local media.

Parveen married Khan in 2013, but after two years of marriage, she returned to her parents' home because of her husband's torture. At that time, the child was six months old.

“Later, the man divorced her in 2020 and forcibly took away the child though she wanted to stay with her mother. Since then, the child was being tortured by her father. According to her mother, the child did not get food for over a year. She was beaten, made to sleep on the floor,” social worker Akhtar added.