Ramasamy: Let grandma take abused child
Penang deputy CM accuses KL authorities of giving ‘too much guidance’ to hospital.
PETALING JAYA: A five-year-old girl reportedly abused by her mother should be put in the care of the girl’s grandmother, Penang deputy chief minister II P Ramasamy said today.
The girl, who is in serious condition, is being treated at Seberang Jaya hospital, where she was taken on Tuesday after a neighbour filed a police report.
Public interest was aroused after photographs of the girl, showing bruises on her body, were posted online.
Ramasamy, who is assemblyman for Batu Kawan, said in a statement today that he had been informed that the grandmother had been allowed by the Welfare Department to be with the child and was by her side day and night.
He appealed for the grandmother to be given custody of the girl, as “if the Social Welfare Department takes custody of the child and places here in a welfare home, the child might be deprived of her cultural and religious upbringing”.
He said he had been informed that the child was making a fast recovery and pointed out that it was not the Welfare Department but the grandmother who was capable of providing her with the emotional support needed for recovery from her ordeal.
He called for greater transparency about the case “so that the public knows what is really going on” and for hospital authorities to conduct regular press briefings about the child’s progress.
Ramasamy accused federal authorities of interfering in the case. “I also understand that the Ministry of Health in Kuala Lumpur is giving too much ‘guidance’ to the Seberang Jaya Hospital authorities on how to deal with the public,” he said.
Commenting on a press report that visitors had been barred and that only the grandmother had been allowed access to the child, Ramasamy said “it is no point preventing visitors, both genuine and non-genuine, and yet remain mum on the child’s progress”.
A security guard was quoted as saying on Monday that “some people, who claimed to be the girl’s relatives, made a fuss in front of the ward when we didn’t allow them in”.
Ramasamy said the public should be informed about the child’s fate, when she would be discharged, and what measures would be taken for her future.
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On Friday, a 41-year-old woman was charged in the Sessions Court under the Child Act. She pleaded not guilty.