Parents arrested too, released on bail.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Another unfortunate twist has come in the case of 19 month-old Athiyan Sivakumar’s death, as the parents have now been arrested in connection with the child’s murder because investigators are saying they deliberately put their own child in harm’s way.
According to police, Sivakumar Mani, 33, and Thenmozhi Rajendran, 24, the parents of the child who died, were aware of babysitter Kinjal Patel’s violent history with their own son, and had even taken the boy to the emergency room in December because of abuse he may have suffered at Patel’s hands. An investigation into child abuse was launched at that time, and Sivakumar’s parents were told they were no longer allowed to entrust Patel with the care of their child – but they did anyway.
They are now facing charges of putting their son at risk of injury and with interfering with a police investigation, after giving false and misleading information to the police in an attempt to protect themselves.
Both parents knew that by leaving their son with Patel, 27, they were violating their agreement with the Department of Children and Families. The mother initially told police that the boy was with her, and had been napping before he awoke and was breathing irregularly. She then modified her statement and said that the child fell off of a sofa, leading to the blunt force trauma that coroners ruled was the cause of death.
Detectives also uncovered that the boy’s father told Patel not to divulge to anyone that she was still babysitting their son. It is not yet been made clear why the parents would still use Patel if she was so violent towards their son. Patel also changed her story several times while talking to police, saying at first that the boy slipped on some spilled water before admitting that she violently shook, hit and pushed the boy.
Patel’s abuse of the boy led to a severely fractured skull and massive internal bleeding, which ultimately killed him three days later, on January 19.
On Thursday, both husband and wife turned themselves in at the local New Haven police station, and have been released on $25,000 bond each. Their lawyer has said that the couple is grieving and terribly shaken up by the whole incident, but plans to plead “not guilty.”
The parents are from India. They have surrendered their passports to the courts in order to guarantee they will not leave the country.
Patel, meanwhile, is still being held on $1 million bail, and is facing charges of murder in the first degree. Trial dates for the parents and Patel have not yet been announced.