A 29-year-old Indian man and his wife have been charged in a court here with physically assaulting his mother, causing her bone and rib fractures, internal bleeding as well as severe burns and unintentionally causing her death, according to a media report.
The man and his 28-year-old wife, whose identity have not been revealed, tortured the elderly woman repeatedly and they even cut her right eye iris out and part of her other eye, the Court of First Instance heard.
The torture is believed to have lasted from July 2018 till October 2018. A forensic doctor said that the elderly woman weighed just 29 kg at the time of her death, the report added.
The couple has been detained but they denied the charge. A case was registered at Al Qusais police station.
The case was exposed by the couple's 54-year-old neighbour, who is a hospital employee, the report said. The Indian witness recounted how the man's wife visited her at her apartment in the same building.
"She was then holding her daughter. She claimed that her mother-in-law had come from India but did not take proper care of their daughter and that the girl would often fall sick while in her care. She wanted me to look after the girl until she came back from work."
"I found his mother on the floor... She was in a critical condition and needed urgent medical treatment. I called the ambulance."
"The defendant remained in the flat and did not go with his mother. I told the paramedics he should go along. He went later after they talked him into it."
"She was in awful pain. Her hands and legs were swollen and her legs bore burn marks. Her son claimed she had poured hot water on herself when we asked him about the cause of the burn injuries. He was standing far from her, apparently indifferent about her condition."
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