London: An independent inquiry has been launched into the murder of a three-year-old boy who was beaten to death by his Indian-origin mother at their home in Scotland earlier this year.

Rosdeep Kular, 34, who had been charged with the murder of her son Mikaeel Kular, faces a lengthy jail term after pleading guilty to culpable homicide at Edinburgh High Court on Friday.

Fife council in Scotland has now confirmed it has ordered a significant case review after it emerged that Mikaeel had been in and out of foster care.

Serious questions have emerged about Scotland’s social work system after it was found that Mikaeel and his twin sister, now four, were taken into foster care in Fife several times because of their mother’s neglect, emotional ill-health and erratic lifestyle.

Rosdeep had pleaded guilty to reduced charges of culpable homicide and attempting to defeat the ends of justice by covering up Mikaeel’s death.

She admitted to beating up her son to death at their Edinburgh flat after he was repeatedly sick after a trip to a Nando’s restaurant at the city’s Fountain Park.

She then disposed off the body in a woodland in Fife and then reported him missing to the police, triggering a major search operation as members of the public helped the police look for the little boy.

Mikaeel’s body was found four days after his death, wrapped in camouflage material and folded into a strapped-up suitcase.

The suitcase, disguised by branches, had been left in woods behind a bungalow in Kirkcaldy, Fife, belonging to Rosdeep’s parents and sister.

Rosdeep, who was brought up in Kirkcaldy and had been living there and in Edinburgh, had alarmed her parents by leaving her five children without proper supervision or dumping them on other family members while she went drinking in Edinburgh, the ‘Guardian’ said.

In December 2013, social services stopped monitoring the family.

The court heard that Mikaeel, whose father was one of his mother’s childhood friends, was seen to be a “healthy, happy little boy”.

Fife council confirmed on Friday that its social workers would be interviewed by the independent inquiry, expected to be chaired by a senior expert from another local authority.

The review, due by December, will include police, the NHS, courts and child protection officers in Fife and Edinburgh and include evidence uncovered by the police investigation into Mikaeel’s death.