THE SISTER of a mother accused of murdering her two-year-old daughter told a court the toddler could not walk.
Marriya Zaman yesterday told Bradford Crown Court that her niece Sanam Navsarka had been unable to move her legs days before her death.
Sanam’s mother Zabheena Navsarka and her fiancee Subhan Anwar, both 21, of Riddings Road, Deighton, deny murder.
Navsarka admits failing to protect her daughter. Anwar denies causing or allowing the death of a child.
Sanam died, aged two years and four months, from complications resulting from untreated broken legs on May 8.
She had sustained 107 injuries before her death, including broken arms.
Defending Anwar, counsel Gilbert Gray QC asked: “Did you notice anything about her when she didn’t seem able to walk?”
Miss Zaman, 19, replied: “Yes. She had a bruise of her knee and leg.”
Mr Gray: “And you thought that was why she didn’t want to walk.”
Miss Zaman: “She couldn’t walk anywhere because she couldn’t move her legs.”
Mr Gray: “How long had that been?”
Miss Zaman: “Since the end of April.”
The court heard of an incident in a Tesco supermarket when Sanam was annoying Anwar and he forced his hand over her mouth until she found it “hard to breathe” and turned red in the face.
“My sister grabbed his hand and said ‘What are you doing?’”, she said.
Miss Zaman added Anwar had treated her niece “like s**t”. She told the jury she had once seen Navsarka slap her daughter hard across the face.
Miss Zaman said: “My sister must have been cooking and my niece kept going in the kitchen and my sister got annoyed and slapped her and I told (my sister) off...”
Mr Gray: “The slap was hard enough for you to tell her off?”
Miss Zaman: “Yes.”
But Miss Zaman, who regularly visited Navsarka, said she had never otherwise seen her sister hit Sanam and that the two had an affectionate relationship.
The court heard from consultant paediatrician Dr Eilean Crosbie, who had interviewed Navsarka and Anwar at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary just moments after the toddler’s death.
Dr Crosbie told the court how Anwar answered all questions about Sanam’s well-being in the days before her death, while Navsarka was “near catatonic” and silent in shock.
The court heard how Anwar reported Sanam had recently started having fits and had “floppy legs”.
The doctor added that in his account of the night of her death, Anwar said he had left Sanam to play in the bath alone just minutes after she had suffered a fit and returned to find her under the water and not breathing.
Proceeding.
