Son allegedly burnt with iron rod by father for failing exam

A 38-year-old man was arrested after he is alleged to have branded his child with a heated iron rod after the 10-year-old boy failed to pass the Year Five Scholarship Exam held recently, police said.

They said the alleged incident took place at a line room in a tea estate in Bogawantalawa while the boy’s mother was out washing the family laundry at a nearby stream.The suspect was taken into custody after teaching staff at the village school in which the boy attended had brought the matter up with the police.

The suspect was produced before a local Magistrate and remanded till October 15, police said.

In a related incident at Moneragala the parents of a another 10-year-old boy were questioned by police after they are alleged to have threatened their son with bodily harm and chased him away from home after he failed to score at the same exam.

The boy was later back to his parents after relatives and neighbours intervened along with the assurances from the area police.

Meanwhile police were yesterday hunting for the killer/killers of a sevenyear-old girl who was found dead with the body dumped into a ditch at a tea estate in Nuwara Eliya last week.

The girl-Sathasivam Niveda was last seen playing with friends in the neighbourhood.

The motive for the killing is yet to be established, and a judicial autopsy ruled out that the victim had been sexually abused before her death.

(LB)