Silly police complaint saves minor

An unlikely, silly police complaint by a minor boy in Andhra Pradesh against his stepmother for not giving him a white shirt to wear on his friend’s birthday party has ended up uncovering serious ill-treatment faced by the boy and prompted the police to issue a warning to the woman.
The 11-year-old boy, who is studying in the fifth standard at a government school and lives in the Kothapeta area of Eluru town in the eponymous district, got ready for his friend’s birthday party around 11 a.m. on Sunday and was planning to sport a white shirt. He asked his stepmother Lakshmi (38) to give him the shirt, which was ready and pressed, said a police official. However, Lakshmi refused to give it to him.
Angered by the refusal, the determined boy approached Eluru town police half-naked with just a towel rolled around his waist and complained against her,” a police official told PTI on Monday. Amused by the boy’s complaint and courage, police further probed his family’s details to learn that he is living with his father, Mallikarjun Rao (40), who ekes out a living working as a labourer, along with his second wife, while the boy’s biological mother had died earlier.
Police summoned Lakshmi and ensured that she gave him the shirt, but further questioning revealed that she had ill-treated the boy earlier, including burning him with a heated rod.