Infant assaulted: Kharghar daycare centre owner, help booked for attempt to murder
Both the accused had been previously booked only for voluntarily causing grievous hurt and common intention
The owner and domestic help of a Kharghar daycare centre were charged with attempt to murder a day after they were arrested for assaulting a nine-month-old girl under their care. Both the accused had been previously booked for voluntarily causing grievous hurt and common intention.
While the owner was released on bail the same day, the help is now in police custody. The CCTV footage at the centre shows the help throwing the baby to the floor and tossing her around. The owner is likely to be rearrested, the police said.
“We have written a letter to the court requesting the owner’s bail be cancelled, after which the court has sent a notification to her. So there is a high possibility of her arrest now,” said Madhukar Pandey, joint commissioner of police of Navi Mumbai.
But Pandey did not have satisfactory replies when HT asked why the attempt to murder charge was not applied at the time of registering the case. “The investigating officers may not have been sure about the charges applicable in this case,” he said.
The police are now checking CCTV footage to find if other children have been assaulted.
“So far nothing objectionable has been found except for this incident. We will take some time to check all the footage,” Pandey said.
Local residents, however, said they often heard children screaming at the centre. “We are not sure if they were tortured,” said a resident of sector 10, on condition of anonymity.
“The government should enact laws to bring transparency to the system and to monitor such centres so that such incidents are not repeated anywhere else in future,” Rusit Patel, a lawyer and friend of the family said.
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Watch: Nine-month-old girl assaulted at daycare centre, 2 arrested
Cops look through CCTV footage to check if Navi Mumbai daycare centre assaulted other kids